Testing the magnetism of polymerized fullerene

Abstract

We present band structure calculations of rhombohedral C-60 performed in the local-spin-density approximation. Rhombohedral C-60(Rh-C-60) is a two-dimensional polymer of C-60 with trigonal topology. No magnetic solution exists for Rh-C-60 and energy bands with different spins are found to be identical and not split. The calculated C 2p partial density of states is compared to carbon K-edge x-ray emission and absorption spectra and shows good agreement. It is concluded that the rhombohedral distortion of C-60 itself cannot induce magnetic ordering in the molecular carbon. The result of magnetization measurements performed on the same Rh-C-60 sample corroborates this conclusion.