Does Er@C60 emit light?

We present the results of recent investigations into the production, isolation and optical characterization of erbium metallofullerenes. Near-infrared emission from Er3+ has been previously observed from Er-2@C-82. However. Er-2@C-82 cannot be responsible for all of the observed emission near 1.5 mum. This paper describes recent attempts to determine the source of this additional Er3+ emission from metallofullerenes. Our work focuses on using sublimation techniques in order to separate the numerous metallofullerene molecules created in the reaction process. Based on these studies we tentatively assign the observed emission to Er@C-60. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.