Energy partition inC60-diamond-(111)-surface collisions: A molecular-dynamics simulation

Collisions of ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ with hydrogen-terminated diamond-(111) surfaces were studied by molecular-dynamics simulations based on a semiempirical density-functional approach. The dominating factor determining the energy partition in the ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$-diamond-(111)-surface collision at constant impact energy is the orientation of the molecules relative to the initial impact points on the surface. In agreement with the experimental results using velocity-selective time-of-flight mass spectroscopy the center-of-mass kinetic energies after the collisions are distributed around a mean value which is only slightly affected by the initial impact energy. The final energy content of the ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$’s increases with the incident kinetic energy, depends strongly on the impact scattering topology, and yields a narrow distribution with increasing mean values in correlation with lower center-of-mass kinetic energies.