Physisorption of molecular oxygen on C60 thin films

The interaction of oxygen molecules with a fullerene surface has been studied using high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and temperature programmed desorption. Vibrational excitation of the adsorbed oxygen is observed at 190 meV, an energy value comparable with that for molecular oxygen in the gas phase. We take this to indicate physisorption of molecular oxygen on the C(60) surface. Thermal desorption results also show that the bonding of oxygen molecules to the C(60) overlayer is comparable to that on a graphite surface. A detailed study of the energy dependence of the vibrational excitation reveals an inelastic electron resonance scattering process. The angular dependence of the resonant vibrational excitation exhibits features distinctively different from those for molecular oxygen physisorbed on the related graphite surface, at a comparable coverage. One possible reason is that the corrugated surface potential, due to the curvature of the C(60) molecules, promotes the preferential ordering of the physisorbed oxygen molecules perpendicular to the surface plane of the C(60) overlayer.