Phase evolution in mixture of cobalt and fullerene deposited from vapor

Structure assembly regularities in vapour-deposited gold–fullerene mixture films

“…A reliable analysis of the chemical composition of the deposited mixture lms is a crucial point in the present research, as it is essential for understanding the structural assembly in Au x C 60 samples. 15 The use of improper methods, such as the estimation of the lm thickness, 20,21 can involve large errors that could strongly affect the correctness of the modelling of the lm structure formation. RBS has an evident advantage in this case as it is a non-destructive and high-resolution technique for the characterization of thin lms with complex compositions.…”

“…25 This technique is quite appropriate for the analysis of the metal-fullerene mixture lms. 15,22 Fig. 1a demonstrates a series of RBS spectra recorded from the deposited mixture lms with increasing Au content.…”

“…24 The surface morphologies of the deposited Au x C 60 mixture lms were analysed by the atomic force microscopy (AFM) using a modular scanning probe microscope NTEGRA-Aura (NT-MDT Spectrum Instruments). The AFM experiments were realized using the tapping mode and by exploiting the NSG03 AFM probes, 15 keeping the samples under ambient atmospheric conditions.…”

“…[10][11][12][13] The NC fabrication would enable proper control of the nanostructure, which promises a specic class of NC materials with tuneable electronic properties. 14,15 The discovery of conductivity and superconductivity in alkali-metal fullerides was a strong motivation for the implementation of TM-fullerene-related research. 16 The attempts to combine TM and C 60 by the SD-method in order to access TM-fullerides usually revealed pronounced metal clustering, which strongly interfered with the main idea, but also supported the new functions of the emerging NC materials.…”

“…[19][20][21] This example argues the necessity to look inside the self-assembly in the TM-C 60 mixture lms in order to manage the material functions through controlling the nanostructure. Thus, in our recent work, 15 we performed a systematic study of the cobalt-fullerene mixture lms elucidating the atomic-scale mechanisms of the NC lm selfassembly. Herein, we focus on the SD-fabricated Au-C 60 mixed systems, whose intriguing plasmonic properties were recently discovered.…”