Theoretical study of the collective electronic excitations in single- and multiple-shell fullerenes

Theoretical support for buckyonions as carriers of the UV interstellar extinction feature

Theoretically simulated UV-visible photoabsorption spectra of the buckyonions are compared with the most recent and complete experimental data. The very good agreement found provides support for our theoretical model of the buckyonions and allows for a detailed analysis of the correspondence between these spectra and the UV interstellar extinction feature. The excellent agreement found between the theoretical and observational features and the consistency of the former with the observational data constraints gives very strong support for the buckyonion origin of the UV interstellar spectrum.

A theoretical model of the photoabsorption spectra of carbon buckyonions

A theoretical model has been developed to predict the photoabsorption spectra of spherical carbon buckyonions in the region dominated by the pi-plasmon feature. This model makes use of the microscopic electronic structure of the system, which is provided by an effective Huckel one-electron model. The important screening effects are treated within the random phase approximation, whose form is an extension to the dynamic case of the one derived in a previous work for the static polarizabilities of these species. A systematic analysis as a function of the buckyonion size is performed. We compare the spectra obtained in this way with those derived from a different representation of the electron motion, namely a two-dimensional spherical electron gas, and from a classical dielectric model.