Abstract

The discovery of fullerenes (Kroto et al. 1985) opened a new branch in the field of nanophysics. In general, fullerene molecules can also be categorized as members of carbon clusters with a cage-like structure. Among fullerenes, the soccer ball molecule, C₆₀, and the rugby ball molecule, C₇₀, are particularly important. In this chapter, the word “fullerene” refers to the C₆₀ molecule unless otherwise specified. Like many atoms and molecules, the fullerene molecules can form clusters. Thus, clusters of fullerenes are sometimes called “clusters of clusters.” Furthermore, fullerenes can form different types of crystals. In the solid phase (fullerite), the C₆₀ molecule forms a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal at room temperature (Krätschmer et al. 1990, Saito and Oshiyama 1991, David et al. 1993).