Density functional studies of plasmons, hybridizations and electron diffractions in carbon fullerene nanomaterials

Quantized plasma waves in carbon valence electron clouds driven by photon or charged particle fields create plasmon resonances in the ionization of fullerene nanomaterials [1]. If the materials have composite structures, like nested fullerenes (buckyonions) or fullerenes endohedrally doped by an atom (endofullerenes), then plasmonic motions dynamically hybridize, leading to spectacular effects in the emission spectra [2,3]. Further, for fast ejected electrons, diffraction type modulations in the momentum space of emission intensities enrich the ionization process which offer an unusual spectroscopic route to image the charge cloud geometry [4,5]. Using a time-dependent local density functional methodology, but smearing the ionic core into a jellium, we recently completed some studies of such processes for fullerene nanomaterials. Results have shown good agreements with measurements. [1] Madjet et al., J. Phys. B 41, 105101 (2008); [2] McCune et al., J. Phys. B Fast Track Comm. 44, 241002 (2011); [3] Madjet et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 243003 (2007); [4] Patel et al., J. Phys. B Fast Track Comm. 44, 191001 (2011); [5] Ruedel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 125503 (2002).