Dynamical screening of an endohedral atom

Abstract

The present work is a generalisation of the dynamical screening factor presented in [1] to consider an atom located at an arbitrary position within the fullerene. A more elaborated investigation into the case where the atom is located at the centre is performed and compared with quantum mechanical calculations for dynamical screening factor of Ar@C$_{60}$ [2] and Mg@C$_{60}$ [3]. The $\pi$ and $\sigma$ plasmons of the fullerene are accounted for in a modified screening factor to improve correspondence with the quantum calculations. The spatial dependence of the screening factor was explored with Ar@C$_{60}$ and Ar@C$_{240}$ and found to depend significantly on the radial distance of the atom from the centre of the fullerene. A spatial averaging of the screening factor is presented.