Nonlinear Optical and Transport Processes in Fullerenes

Nonlinearities photoluminescence, photoconductivity and resonant Raman measurements of fullerenes at high excitation densities are described and the observations are discussed in terms of an optically induced insulator-metal transition in fullerene crystals. The intensity dependence of the transient photoconductive response is reported to show similar nonlinear behaviour. At low intensities, the response decays exponentially within a time of 15nsec. At increased intensities, a second, delayed component emerges and evolves nonlinearly into a long lived component of lifetime 100-200nsec. The system is fitted with a simple three level model in accordance with a Mott-like transition.