SUPERCONDUCTIVITY OF DOPED FULLERENES

We consider the pi-electrons on the surface of a single molecule of C60 (fullerene) interacting via an on-site repulsive interaction U. We show that, for a large range of parameters, the energy to add two electrons to the molecule is less than twice the energy to add one electron to each of two molecules. Thus, at scales greater than the molecular diameter, there is a strong effective attraction between electrons of purely electronic origin. This attraction can readily produce superconductivity. The effect appears to be insensitive to the details of the model considered.