Crystal Structures of Polymerized Fullerides AC60, A=K, Rb, Cs and Alkali-mediated Interactions

Abstract

Starting from a model of rigid interacting C60 polymer chains on an orthorhombic lattice, we study the mutual orientation of the chains and the stability of the crystalline structures Pmnn and I2/m. We take into account i) van der Waals interactions and electric quadrupole interactions between C60 monomers on different chains as well as ii) interactions of the monomers with the surrounding alkali atoms. The direct interactions i) always lead to an antiferrorotational structure Pmnn with alternate orientation of the C60 chains in planes (001). The interactions ii) with the alkalis consist of two parts: translation-rotation (TR) coupling where the orientations of the chains interact with displacements of the alkalis, and quadrupolar electronic polarizability (ep) coupling, where the electric quadrupoles on the C60 monomers interact with induced quadrupoles due to excited electronic d states of the alkalis. Both interactions ii) lead to an effective orientation-orientation interaction between the C60 chains and always favor the ferrorotational structure I2/m where C60 chains have a same orientation. The structures Pmnn for KC60 and I2/m for Rb- and CsC60 are the result of a competition between the direct interaction i) and the alkali-mediated interactions ii). In Rb- and CsC60 the latter are found to be dominant, the preponderant role being played by the quadrupolar electronic polarizability of the alkali ions.