Effect of symmetry on the electronic structure of spheroidal fullerenes in a weak uniform magnetic field

TL;DR

This study investigates how a weak uniform magnetic field affects the electronic energy levels of slightly deformed spheroidal fullerenes, revealing orientation-dependent spectral fine structures.

Contribution

It introduces a continuum field-theory model to analyze the orientation-sensitive effects of magnetic fields on deformed fullerenes' electronic spectra.

Findings

Magnetic field orientation significantly influences energy level splitting.

Magnetic field in x direction does not affect the first energy level.

Magnetic field in z direction causes different spectral splitting.

Abstract

The effect of a weak uniform magnetic field on the electronic structure of slightly deformed fullerene molecules is studied within the continuum field-theory model. It is shown that fine structure of the electronic energy spectrum is very sensitive to the orientation of the magnetic field. In particular, we found that the magnetic field pointed in the x direction does not influence the first electronic level whereas it causes a splitting of the second energy level. This behavior differs markedly from the case of the magnetic field pointed in the z direction.