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Fullerenes
are exciting materials with great potential for uses in nanotechnological
applications. The simplest fullerene structure is the C60 molecule,
which consists of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a spherical shell. These
fullerides are challenging systems because both the electron-electron and
electron-phonon interactions are large in comparison with the electronic
bandwidth of the material. Mott-insulator transitions, superconductivity,
magnetism are exciting properties resulting.
Our research has focused on mapping the
electronic structure of K3C60. In the future we are interested in extending
this study to other dopants and interaction with substrate and investigate
superconductivity and magnetism in different fullerides compounds.
For more information see our publication in
Science 300, 303-307 (2003).
Carbon Nanotubes:
The properties of electrons become more and more exotic when progressing from
the three-dimensional world into lower dimensions. The appeal in one-dimensional
structures lies in a substantial change of the electronic properties mainly
caused by correlation effects among electrons constrained in one direction. The
lowering of dimensionality in physical systems brings about a wide variety of
phenomena such as collective charge modes, collective spin modes, Peierls
instabilities. As a consequence the single particle picture breaks down in
describing the ground and excited states of the systems and one is pushed toward
more sophisticated frameworks, e.g. Luttinger liquids, Luther-Emery liquids,
Mott insulators, etc.
We are interested in studying the electronic
properties of quasi 1D nanostructures. Currently our focus is on multiwall
carbon nanotubes, using angle integrated PES. We are also interested in other
one dimensional structure such as BN nanotube and other semiconducting quantum
wires.
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