Progressive melting in confined one-dimensional C 60 chains

International audienceC 60 fullerenes confined inside single-walled carbon nanotubes form an archetypal one-dimensional system. X-ray diffraction experiments, from room temperature to 1073 K, reveal an increasing melting phenomenon. Detailed analysis of the sawtooth peak characteristic of the fullerene organization allows the quantitative determination of fluctuations in intermolecular distances. The present results validate the predictions of one-dimensional statistical models