Electronic states and molecular symmetry of the higher fullerene C-80

Core and valence level photoemission and C 1s core excitation spectra are presented from solid C-80. Ten valence band features are identified in the binding energy range 0-15 eV, whose relative intensity depends strongly on the incident photon energy. C 1s core level photoemission comprised fine structure which was interpreted as reflecting one electron and collective electron excitations of the ionised C80 system. The number of levels arising from C 1s to unoccupied pi* transitions observed in core excitation spectra and the nature of the filling of these levels upon Rb intercalation suggest that our C-80 samples contain predominantly molecules which possess D-2 symmetry.