The UV absorption spectrum of C60 (buckminsterfullerene): A narrow band at 3860 Å

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Abstract
The absorptionspectrum of the special C6 0 cluster buckminsterfullerene has been studied in a supersonic beam by laser depletion of the cold van der Waals complexes of C6 0 with benzene and methylene chloride. Both complexes were found to display a single, isolated absorption band in the near ultraviolet superimposed on a structureless absorption continuum. For the methylene chloride complex this feature is centered at 3860 Å, and is roughly 50 cm− 1 wide. In the benzene van der Waals cluster, the corresponding feature is located at 3863 Å, and has a similar width. This spectrum is tentatively assigned to the 0–0 band of the lowest 1 T 1u ←1 A g (LUMO+1←HOMO) transition of a truncated icosahedral carbon shell structure, broadened by coupling to the underlying quasicontinuum of ground state vibrational levels.