Synthesis of C3N4+ by the combination of laser ablation of graphite and N2 molecular beam

The gas phase analysis of carbon and carbon nitride ion clusters produced during pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of graphite under nitrogen molecular beam was studied. In this paper, we present the time of flight mass analysis of the ions produced within the plasma/gas interaction as a function of the ablating laser wavelength (1064, 532, 308 and 248 nm). The mass analysis shows the presence of Cn+ (n≤31), CnN2+ (n≤8) and C2n+1N4+ (n=0,1,2) clusters. Out of all laser wavelengths used C3N4+ cluster ions were most effectively formed using 532 nm laser light.