Clusterization of fullerene C60/70 molecules in solutions and its influence on the optical and the nonlinear optical properties of solutions
Abstract
The effect of cluster formation in a fullerene mixture C60/70 (D5h-C70 — 95 mass percent and Ih-C60 — 5 mass percent) solution in toluene on the electronic properties and the infrared absorption spectra during long-term (60 days) storage under isotermic conditions is studied. The features of the structure of (C 60/70)N clusters have been studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and a fractal mechanism is proposed for the formation of large (~291.4 nm) stable clusters, which may contain up to ~19698 molecules of C70 and ~1036 molecules of C60. The precise values of the nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) xyyx (ω) of the C60/70 solutions for different laser beam polarizations (in the range of ellipticities θ = 0.1 − 0.8) are determined. The physical mechanisms of the laser-induced optical activity of a C60/70 solution in toluene are discussed.