No Arabic abstract
We analyze using Poisson equation the spatial distributions of the positive charge of carbon atomic nuclei shell and negative charge of electron clouds forming the electrostatic potential of the C60 fullerene shell as a whole. We consider also the case when an extra positive charge appears inside C60 in course of e.g. photoionization of an endohedral A@C. We demonstrate that frequently used radial square-well potential U(r) simulating the C60 shell leads to nonphysical charge densities of the shell in both cases - without and with an extra positive charge inside. We conclude that the square well U(r) modified by adding a Coulomb-potential-like term does not describe the interior polarization of the shell by the electric charge located in the center of the C60 shell. We suggest another model potential, namely that of hyperbolic cosine shape with properly adjusted parameters that is able to describe the monopole polarization of C60 shell. As a concrete illustration, we have calculated the photoionization cross-sections of H@C60 taking into account the monopole polarization of the shell in the frame of suggested model. We demonstrate that proper account of this polarization does not change the photoionization cross-section.
We have demonstrated that the polarization of the fullerene shell considerably alters the polarization potential of an atom, stuffed inside a fullerene. This essentially affects the electron elastic scattering phases as well as corresponding cross-sections. We illustrate the general trend by concrete examples of electron scattering by endohedrals of Neon and Argon. To obtain the presented results, we have suggested a simplified approach that permits to incorporate the effect of fullerenes polarizability into the Neon and Argon endohedrals polarization potential. As a result, we obtained numeric results that show strong variations in shape and magnitudes of scattering phases and cross-sections due to effect of fullerene polarization upon the endohedral polarization potential.
In this Letter, we investigate the variation of endohedral A@CN potential due to addition at the center of it a positive charge, for example, in the process of atom A photoionization. Using a reasonable model to describe the fullerenes shell, we managed to calculate the variation that is a consequence of the monopole polarization of CN shell. We analyze model potentials with flat and non-flat bottoms and demonstrate that the phenomenological potentials that properly simulates the C60 shell potential should belong to a family of potentials with a non-flat bottom. As concrete example, we use the Lorentz-bubble model potential. By varying the thickness of this potential, we describe the various degrees of the monopole polarization of the C60 shell by positive electric charge in the center of the shell. We calculated the photoionization cross-sections of He, Ar and Xe atoms located at the center of C60 shell with and without taking into account accompanying this process monopole polarization of the fullerenes shell. Unexpectedly, we found that the monopole polarization do not affect the photoionization cross sections of these endohedral atoms.
We provide answers to long-lasting questions in the puzzling behavior of fullerene-fullerene fusion: Why are the fusion barriers so exceptionally high and the fusion cross sections so extremely small? An ab initio nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics (NA-QMD) analysis of C$_{60}$+C$_{60}$ collisions reveals that the dominant excitation of an exceptionally giant oblate-prolate H$_g(1)$ mode plays the key role in answering both questions. From these microscopic calculations, a macroscopic collision model is derived, which reproduces the NA-QMD results. Moreover, it predicts analytically fusion barriers for different fullerene-fullerene combinations in excellent agreement with experiments.
This is an investigation on the dynamical screening of an atom confined within a fullerene of finite width. The two surfaces of the fullerene lead to the presence of two surface plasmon eigenmodes. It is shown that, in the vicinity of these two eigenfrequencies, there is a large enhancement of the confined atoms photoabsorption rate.
Besides buckminsterfullerene (C60), other fullerenes and their derivatives may also reside in space. In this work, we study the formation and photo-dissociation processes of astronomically relevant fullerene/anthracene (C14H10) cluster cations in the gas phase. Experiments are carried out using a quadrupole ion trap (QIT) in combination with time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry. The results show that fullerene (C60, and C70)/anthracene (i.e., [(C14H10)nC60]+ and [(C14H10)nC70]+), fullerene (C56 and C58)/anthracene (i.e., [(C14H10)nC56]+ and [(C14H10)nC58]+) and fullerene (C66 and C68)/anthracene (i.e., [(C14H10)nC66]+ and [(C14H10)nC68]+) cluster cations, are formed in the gas phase through an ion-molecule reaction pathway. With irradiation, all the fullerene/anthracene cluster cations dissociate into mono$-$anthracene and fullerene species without dehydrogenation. The structure of newly formed fullerene/anthracene cluster cations and the bonding energy for these reaction pathways are investigated with quantum chemistry calculations. Our results provide a growth route towards large fullerene derivatives in a bottom-up process and insight in their photo-evolution behavior in the ISM, and clearly, when conditions are favorable, fullerene/PAH clusters can form efficiently. In addition, these clusters (from 80 to 154 atoms or ~ 2 nm in size) offer a good model for understanding the physical-chemical processes involved in the formation and evolution of carbon dust grains in space, and provide candidates of interest for the DIBs that could motivate spectroscopic studies.