Photoassisted Magnetization of Fullerene C60 with Magnetic-Field Trapped Raman Scattering

We report a photoassisted method to magnetize microcrystal fullerene C-60 at room temperature by exciting it to triplet states via a proper laser radiation and then trapping the spin-polarized states under a strong magnetic field. Novel changes on Raman scattering of the C-60 microcrystals were observed in the presence and absence of the magnetic field. In particular, the Raman spectra were found to exhibit a "hysteresis" phenomenon when the external magnetic field was removed. In light of this, we propose magnetic-field-trapped Raman spectroscopy (MFTRS) and employ first-principle calculations to reproduce the Raman activities of C-60 at different states. Further, MFTRS of the fullerene is demonstrated to originate from its photoassisted magnetization (PAM). The PAM strategy enables the magnetization of materials which consist of only light elements; meanwhile, the MFTRS investigation may open a new research field in Raman spectroscopy.