Superatom molecular orbital in C₈₀

The Superatom Molecular Orbitals (SAMO) in fullerene derivatives are of great interests which gives a wide basement for many electronic applications. In this work, the Density Functional Theory reveals the SAMO states of endohedrally doped C₈₀ derivatives with Li, Sc, Mn, Ti, Ca, Fe, and Co atoms in molecular and periodic structures. The choice and position of metal atoms in endohedrally doped C₈₀ derivatives largely affects the orientation of SAMO energies and wavefunction distributions. Among various derivatives, the Co-substituted C₈₀ constitutes the lowest SAMO energy. The charge transfer study infers the influence of metal atoms inside the cage on SAMO energies. At higher energies, p_z-, 2s-, and p_xy- SAMO bands have been overlapped with higher dispersion bands which depict the increased intermolecular interaction in delocalized bands causing a larger dispersion. These results give new insights for future studies on lowering SAMO energy nearly to the fermi level in higher fullerenes.