Plasmon-polariton modes in fullerenes

Abstract

It is well known that collective electronic excitations in fullerene C$_{60}$ are manifested as Mie plasmons, and in graphene (the limiting case of an infinitely large fullerene) collective excitations are of plasmon-polariton type. How the properties of plasmons change in fullerenes with intermediate sizes is poorly understood. This problem is considered in current paper in the framework of the GW approximation on the example of fullerenes C$_{60}$, C$_{240}$ and C$_{540}$. The calculations show that a high-frequency plasmon-polariton resonance begins to form in C$_{240}$, and in C$_{540}$ the intensity of this resonance becomes comparable to the intensity of Mie plasmon resonance. Thus with a further increase in fullerene size, a gradual transition from Mie plasmons to plasmon-polaritons should be observed.