Charge Transfer in Ion-Ion Collisions Involving Fullerene Ions

Fullerenes are a direct link between atoms with discrete electronic energy levels and solids with a band structure and a well defined surface. In this paper, we report on our experiments on the resonant electron transfer in collisions between two fullerene ions as well as on the non-resonant transfer in collisions between fullerene ions and atomic ions. Absolute total cross sections have been measured for the reaction C60+ + C602+ → C602+ + C60+ at center-of-mass energies ranging from 27 keV to 69 keV. Surprisingly, within the error bars, these cross sections are identical to the respective cross sections for C60+ + C60 measured by Rohmund and Campbell (1997 J. Phys. B 30 5293). For the non resonant system C60+ + He2+ → C602+ + He+ absolute cross sections have been measured in the center-of-mass energy range from 38 keV to 196 keV.