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Electron-induced excitation of vibrations of Ce atoms inside a C-80 cage

The paper demonstrates that inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy of single molecules (Ce2@C80 ) via STM may be used to analyse electron-vibrational coupling. It showed that low-energy inelastic tunnelling excitation can be interpreted as excited movements of encapsulated atoms inside fullerene cages. The Ce-cage vibration and purely cage vibrations exhibit very high electron-vibration coupling giving a pronounced zero-bias conductance anomaly; a unique electronic structure-related behaviour, whereby the orbitals localized on the Ce atoms mediate the electron-vibration interactions in Ce2@C80.These observations establish a mechanism whereby atoms encapsulated within fullerenes actively participate in determining dynamical properties of molecular junctions.