The systems of volume-localized electron quantum levels of charged fullerenes

TL;DR

This paper theoretically and numerically demonstrates the existence of short-lived, volume-localized electron quantum levels in positively charged fullerenes, revealing a new type of nano-atom with potential experimental observability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel system of volume-localized electron states in charged fullerenes, expanding understanding beyond surface-localized states.

Findings

Discrete volume-localized levels depend on charge and increase in energy width with higher charge

Energy width ranges from 0.32 a.u. for C60+1 to 1.9 a.u. for C60+10

The system resembles a short-lived nano-atom with electrons inside a charged sphere

Abstract

The existence of a system of short-live discrete volume-localized electron quantum levels in positively charged fullerenes is theoretically and numerically demonstrated using the example of fullerenes C60 and C20. Unlike well-studied experimentally and theoretically electron states localized in a thin surface layer, these electron states are due to the flat part of the Coulomb potential of a positively charged fullerene sphere. The energy width of the system of such discrete volume-localized levels depends on the charge and increases with charge increasing. For C60+1, the energy width is 0.32 a.u. and increases up to 1.9 a.u. for fullerene C60+10. Thus, the electrons captured on these discrete levels of fullerene form a sort of a short-lived "nano-atom" or "nano-ion", in which the electrons are localized inside a positively charged spherical "nucleus". Numerous published papers have demonstrated theoretically and experimentally the existence of metastable positively charged C60 fullerenes with a charge of +10 or more, which suggests the possibility of experimental observation of the considering system of volume-localized electronic states.