Photoionization Dynamics of the C₆₀ fullerene in an astrophysical context

The cosmic omnipresence of C₆₀ serves as testament to the fact that large complex molecules can exist in space. Now with four of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) having been assigned to transitions in its cationic counterpart, C₆₀⁺, the need to fully comprehend the photoionization dynamics of C₆₀ is evident. We inspected the photoionization dynamics of the C₆₀ buckminsterfullerene with VUV synchrotron radiation using a double-imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectrometer. We present the data as a 2D photoelectron matrix which contains a wealth of spectroscopic data which relates to (i) the threshold photoelectron spectrum (TPES) which is compared to data relevant to the DIBs, (ii) the kinetic photoelectron distribution at the Lyman-α line which is relevant to the dominant heating source in the ISM, and (iii) the absolute photoionization cross section of C₆₀ up to approx. 10.5 eV. The TPES implies that the symmetry of the ground state is different than previous theoretical models predict.