240 Electrons Set in Motion

(Left) Schematic drawing of a C-60 molecule being excited by an incoming photon into a special “plasmon” state in which all 240 valence electrons in the molecule participate. (Right) A graph showing the two different types of plasmon states that can be excited, depending on the incoming photon energies.

Reported by: Scully et al., Physical Review Letters, 18 February 2005

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