Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
The phonon spectra of pristine fullerene, superconducting K3C60 and saturation-doped Rb6C60 measured by inelastic neutron scatteringin the energy range 2.5 - 200 meV at low temperatures reveal substantial broadening of five-fold degenerate Hg intramolecular vibrational modes both in the low-energy radial and the high-energy tangential part of the spectrum. This provides strong evidence for a traditional phonon-mediated mechanism of superconductivity in the fullerides but with an electron-phonon coupling strength distributed over a wide range of energies (33-195 meV) as a result of the finite curvature of the fullerene spherical cage.