Plasmon excitations in C60 by fast charged particle beams

For an isolated C60 molecule, we study plasmon excitations that are induced by an external, fast moving electron, by using a two-dimensional, spherical, two-fluid hydrodynamic model for the dynamic response of the σ and π electrons in the carbon nanostructure. Second quantization of the linearized hydrodynamic model allows us to discuss how effective is multiple excitation of various plasmon modes. Mean numbers of the excited plasmon modes, differential cross sections, and the total energy loss of the incident electron are calculated by both a quantized model with zero damping and by a semi-classical model with phenomenological damping. Our calculated differential cross sections are compared with experiment.