Energetic Cluster Ion Impacts on Carbon and Gold/Carbon Films

Mass analyzed beams of accelerated cluster ions have been used to study energy transfer processes on impact with solid surfaces. Singly-charged water molecule clusters containing between 20 and 150 water molecules and one proton have been accelerated to kinetic energies as high as 300 kV and collided with 10 nm films of carbon or carbon covered with 2 μg/cm2 evaporated gold. Alterations in the structure of these films have been studied by transmission electron microscopy.Carbon films bombarded with water clusters of 25 and 100 molecules accelerated to 300 kV are shown in Fig. 1. The use of 100 water molecules produced craters about 7-8 nm in diameter and even 50 molecules produced craters about 1.5-2 nm in diameter; however, 25 molecules failed to produce any detectable alterations in the film. The bombardment of a gold-covered film by similar clusters is shown in Fig. 2. In these cases, gold grains were removed to form voids about 10-20 nm in diameter, even by the clusters as small as 25 molecules, which produced no craters in pure carbon.