COLLISIONAL DYNAMICS OF C-60 WITH NOBLE-GAS-ATOMS STUDIED BY MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS WITH EMPIRICAL 2-BODY AND 3-BODY FORCES

The dynamics of C60-rare gas collisions is studied using molecular dynamics with empirical two- and three-body forces. The carbon potential is chosen to be able to reproduce the experimentally determined bond lengths and cluster radius of C60 as well as the structure of small carbon clusters. The reaction channels observed can be divided into four categories: deep inelastic scattering, fragmentation, capture and inelastic scattering. The temperature dependence of the threshold energy for capture is studied and compared with available experimental data. The calculations predict a maximum, in the lowest tail of the kinetic-energy distribution of the projectile with a transition from a single- to a double-humped maximum with increasing collision energy and, in addition, may provide a natural interpretation for the, as yet unexplained, structure in the experimental shapes.