It is shown that new specific effects take place during irradiation of metals with high energy fullerene beams. The observed quasicontinuous damage is confined inside ∼20 nm diam cylinders around the projectile paths and is compared to the damage resulting from GeV heavy ion irradiation. The large extension of the highly damaged zones after cluster irradiations might be due to the strong localization of the deposited energy during the slowing-down process.

• Received 22 July 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.1135