Superconductivity in the Fullerenes

Intramolecular vibrations strongly scatter electrons near the Fermi-surface in doped fullerenes. A simple expression for the electron-phonon coupling parameters for this case is derived and evaluated by quantum-chemical calculations. The observed superconducting transition temperatures and their variation with lattice constants can be understood on this basis. To test the ideas and calculations presented here, we predict that high frequency H2 modes acquire a width of about 20% of their frequency in superconductive fullerenes, and soften by about 5% compared to the insulating fullerenes.