Investigation of Iron‐Fullerene Mixture Plasmas in ECR Discharge

Abstract

Fullerene+iron (C₆₀+Fe) mixture plasmas were produced and studied in the ECR ion source of ATOMKI. The two main components of the plasma were obtained by different filament ovens. In this series of measurements we concentrated on the maximum ratio of C₅₈ (damaged fullerene) in the plasma. C₅₈ is less stable than C₆₀ and the probability to form new materials is higher. Using this method we produced molecules of mass M=752 both in single‐ and double‐charged states with beam intensities of 8 · 10⁻¹⁰A and 2 · 10⁻¹⁰A, respectively. We identified this beam as a mixture of FeC₅₈, O₂C₆₀ and CO₂C₅₉, while the experiment did not give information on the exact location of the iron and oxygen in the carbon ball.

Keywords:

• Fullerene
• iron
• plasma
• ECRIS

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by OTKA T42729 grant and by a HAS‐JSPS collaboration (Hung. ref.: 98/2006). The authors are grateful to Y. Yoshida, Y. Kato, A. Kitagawa and M. Muramatsu for the useful discussions.