Coulomb Dissociation of Nanoparticles Grazing along Organic Surfaces

A Coulomb dissociation model is presented for molecular nanoparticles, e.g. nanoclusters consisting of identical atoms or small molecules. These nanoparticles graze with velocities less than the Bohr velocity (108 cm=s) along an organic surface at atomic distances. The surface molecules contain IR-antennas, which consist of periodically located identical diatomic valence bonds with significant dipole momenta, e.g. hydrocarbon chains like (CH2)n. Here, we analyse the Coulomb interaction of these surface molecules with grazing nanoparticles, which do not contain any IR-antennas, e.g. fullerene molecules. Provided that the grazing velocity is in the range of 105 - 107 cm=s and the minimum distance of the grazing nanoparticles to the surface is approximately 2 Å , the IR-antennas of the interacting surface molecules will collect vibrational energy quanta, the so-called excimols. The number of excimols accumulated during the interaction time of at least 1 ps increases with the number of dipoles in the IR-antennas. Excimol energy can be transmitted back to the grazing nanoparticle by a ps-photon flux, which is estimated intense enough to induce multi-ionization of nanoparticle constituents. The resulting charges inside the nanoparticles cause high Coulomb repulsion forces, which will be able to promptly dissociate them.