Effects of Slow Highly Charged Ion Impact Upon Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite

—Nanoscale Modification of Electronic States of Graphite Surface—

抄録

Nanoscale modification of electronic states of highly oriented pyrotytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces induced by the impact of slow highly charged ion (HCI) is reviewed. The high potential energy of slow Ar⁸⁺ induces multiple emission of electrons from the surface, which strongly modifies the electronic states of the local area of HOPG surfaces. The size of created protrusions created by the Ar⁸⁺-impact with 400 eV of the kinetic energy was about 1 nm in diameter, and the subsequent surface treatment by electron injection from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) induced a localized transition from sp² to sp³ hybridization at the center of the protrusion, which considered to result in the formation of nano-diamond-like structures.