Eur. Phys. J. D 29, 49-56 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2004-00011-9

Implantation of size-selected silver clusters into graphite

Linearity of implantation depth vs. scaled momentum

Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Corresponding author: ^a lucia.seminara@epfl.ch

Received: 21 August 2003
Revised: 24 November 2003
Published online: 10 February 2004

Abstract

We report on a systematic study of the implantation of size-selected Ag clusters on a graphite sample, for different cluster sizes (N=1,3,7,9,13) and different impact energies ( keV). Results show that the implantation depth scales linearly with the momentum of the cluster, with a stopping power which depends on cluster size. We have particularly investigated the effects of the size and the geometry of the cluster on the implantation into the graphite substrate. A sort of universal behavior, which unifies different elements and different cluster geometries, can be recognized by scaling the momentum with the cluster projected surface. The stopping power of the cluster while penetrating the HOPG surface has been investigated for each cluster size, and a “molecular effect" is recognized, meaning that the stopping power is not additive in the number of atoms of the cluster.