THE TRIPLET-STATE OF C-70 - A ZERO-FIELD STUDY

We report the optical detection in zero field of the three microwave t ransitions between the triplet sublevels of C-70. In n-pentane the ban dwidth is 4 MHz (30 MHz in decalin/cyclohexane) and the fine-structure parameters, particularly E, have been found to be site-dependent. The intrinsic population and decay characteristics of the sublevels have been determined. A common decay of the T-z <-> T-x and T-z <-> T-y tra nsitions has been observed owing to pseudo-rotation within the C-70 mo lecule at 1.2 K. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.