C₆₀

Buckyballs are perhaps the most beautiful molecules in the Universe. They are formed by 60 carbon atoms which are held together in an icosahedral structure by strong covalent bonds. In a solid state, the molecules interact through the weak Van der Waals forces and form an fcc lattice. Pristine C60 solids are insulators, but when doped with alkali atoms, they become conducting and at low temperatures (typically below 25 K) even superconducting.

I studied vibrational properties of the C60 molecule with the goal to understand the molecule's infrared spectrum. In particular, I calculated the effect of isotope impurities on the infrared spectrum of C60, but my main contribution to the field was figuring out the mechanism by which some 2000 small peaks find their way into the spectrum. Brief discussions can be found in The Isotope Effect in C60 and in Anharmonicity in the Infrared Spectrum of C60.