Development of pair-ion plasma source using fullerenes

Summary form only given, as follows. In relation to dusty plasmas, general attention has recently been paid to plasmas including negative ions with masses much more heavier than those of positive ions. On the other hand, special interest is focused on plasmas consisting of charged particles with an equal mass, such as two-species electron-positron plasma and fine particle plasma produced by photo-ionization. In this study, our attention is concentrated on the steady state generation of a pair-ion plasma consisting of only positive and negative ions with equal mass using fullerenes and the investigation of various basic plasma phenomena which are different from ordinary plasmas. The fullerene (C/sub 60/) is adopted as a candidate for the ion source in order to realize this pair-ion plasma, because the fullerene of a stable cage is easily charged negatively and positively. In case of application, this pair-ion plasma will be used for selectively creating all-carbon fullerene dimers of dumbbell-like structures, which are derived directly from carbon allotropes. This method is quite different from current ones, accompanied by stepwise procedures in solid- or solution-phase reactions using catalysts or nonallotropic fullerene derivatives.