Nonlinear Phenomena in the Highly Excited State of C₆₀

Abstract

Under high intensity illumination, the optical and electronic properties of fullerenes are seen to undergo dramatic, nonlinear changes. The photoluminescence emission is seen to increase with approximately the third power of the input intensity above an apparent threshold intensity. Associated with this nonlinear increase is the emergence of a long lifetime emission component and a redshifting of the emission spectrum. Above the threshold intensity the photoconductive response increases with approximately the cube of the input power. In the highly excited state, the photoconductive response becomes relatively temperature independent compared to the thermally activated behaviour observed at low intensities. The characteristics of the temperature dependence are associated with a metallic-like phase in the highly excited state and therefore an optically driven insulator to metal transition is proposed as a description of the observed phenomena.