Processing of C60 thin films by Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE)

Thin films of fullerenes (C-60) were deposited onto silicon using matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE). The deposition was carried out from a frozen homogeneous dilute solution of C-60 in anisole (0.67 wt%), and over a broad range of laser fluences, from 0.15 J/cm(2) up to 3.9 J/cm(2). MAPLE has been applied for deposition of fullerenes for the first time and we have studied the growth of thin films of solid C-60. The fragmentation of C-60 fullerene molecules induced by ns ablation in vacuum of a frozen anisole target with C-60 was investigated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). Our findings show that intact fullerene films can be produced with laser fluences ranging from 0.15 J/cm(2) up to 1.5 J/cm(2).