Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity of Solid Fullerenes

Evidence is presented that the lattice vibrations of compacted C(60)/C(70) fullerite microcrystals consist predominantly of localized modes. Vibrational motions of the rigid molecules ("buckyballs") have been identified as well as their internal vibrations. Debye waves play only a relatively minor role, except below approximately 4 kelvin. By comparison with other crystalline materials, for these materials the Einstein model of the specific heat and thermal conductivity of solids, which is based on the assumption of atoms (in this case, buckyballs) vibrating with random phases, is in much better agreement with the measurements than the Debye model, which is based on collective excitations.