Effect of sample thickness on carbon ejection from ultrathin graphite bombarded by keV C60

Abstract

Molecular dynamics computer simulations are employed to investigate the effect of a sample thickness on the ejection process from ultrathin graphite. The thickness of graphite varies from 2 to 16 graphene layers and the system is bombarded by 10 keV C60 projectiles at normal incidence. The ejection yield and the kinetic energy of emitted atoms are monitored. The implications of the results to a novel analytical approach in secondary ion mass spectrometry based on the ultrathin free-standing graphene substrates and transmission geometry are discussed.