An ab initio study of the valence excitation of methyl methacrylate as observed by EELS

This paper presents an overview of how electron spectroscopies have contributed to advances in fullerene research. In particular, we illustrate the vital role these techniques have played in improving our understanding of the importance of strong electronic correlation and of electron-phonon coupling in these materials, in the derivation of electron hopping rates, in providing a direct determination of charge transfer and hybridisation in both fullerene salts and adsorbed fullerenes and in determining the optical gap of these systems. We discuss systems of increasing complexity, starting with C60 in the gas phase and in the solid state, and moving on to C60 salts and to C60 adsorbed on surfaces. Finally we look at both higher fullerenes and fullerenes with a heteroatom either on or inside the cage.