Deposition of endohedral fullerenes from a laser evaporation cluster source

Mass spectra of fullerenes doped with transition and rare earth metals (Sc, Y, La, Ce, Gd) reveal a variety of singly and doubly doped metallofullerenes. Characteristic oscillations of the relative mass intensities of the La- and Y-metallofullerenes suggest the existence of two different isomers of the corresponding doubly doped fullerenes. The yield of the plasma-generated clusters is sufficient to be used for an in situ deposition of mass-selected metallofullerenes onto a surface. In particular, endohedral fullerenes with 60 or less atoms are accessible for deposition by means of a laser vaporization cluster source. Scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to image Ce@C₆₀ and La@C₆₀ on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. Received: 24 May 2000 / Accepted: 6 November 2000 / Published online: 9 February 2001