Photoexcitation of a Volume Plasmon in C60 Ions

Authors

• S. W. J. Scully, University of Nevada - Reno
• E. D. Emmons, University of Nevada - Reno
• M. F. Gharaibeh, University of Nevada - Reno
• R. A. Phaneuf, University of Nevada - RenoFollow
• A. L. D. Kilcoyne, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryFollow
• A. S. Schlachter, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryFollow
• S. Schippers, Institut für Atom-und Molekülphysik
• A. M. Müller, Institut für Atom-und Molekülphysik
• H. S. Chakraborty, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
• M. E. Madjet, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
• J. M. Rost, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

Date of this Version

2005

Citation

Physical Review Letters 94, 065503 (2005); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.065503

Abstract

Neutral C₆₀ is well known to exhibit a giant resonance in its photon absorption spectrum near 20 eV. This is associated with a surface plasmon, where delocalized electrons oscillate as a whole relative to the ionic cage. Absolute photoionization cross-section measurements for C⁺₆₀, C²⁺₆₀, and C³⁺₆₀ ions in the 17– 75 eV energy range show an additional resonance near 40 eV. Time-dependent density functional calculations confirm the collective nature of this feature, which is characterized as a dipole-excited volume plasmon made possible by the special fullerene geometry.