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Research
Novel forms of Carbon
Diamondoids: Nano-scale clusters of Diamond
The recent discovery of large quantities of higher diamondoids in petroleum provides exciting opportunities to create materials with the combined properties of diamond and nano-materials. This provides rich ground for scientific exploration and technological applications. The current research focus is unique electron emission and transport properties.
Buckyballs: Carbon Soccer Balls
Buckyballs are structures of 60 Carbon atoms in a molecule that resembles the pattern on a soccer ball. They became of interest to science because of their unusual structural properties, but also because of relatively high-transition temperature superconductivity upon doping the molecular crystal. We have probed the electronic band structure of C60 by ultra-high resolution angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. This work provided the first experimental evidence for a band structure on molecular crystal systems. Further efforts in succession demonstrated the importance of molecular orientation for describing both electronic structure and physical properties.