H₂O inside the fullerene C₆₀: Inelastic neutron scattering spectrum from rigorous quantum calculations

We present a methodology that, for the first time, allows rigorous quantum calculation of the inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectra of a triatomic molecule in a nanoscale cavity, in this case, H2O inside the fullerene C60. Both moieties are taken to be rigid. Our treatment incorporates the quantum six-dimensional translation-rotation (TR) wave functions of the encapsulated H2O, which serve as the spatial parts of the initial and final states of the INS transitions. As a result, the simulated INS spectra reflect the coupled TR dynamics of the nanoconfined guest molecule. They also exhibit the features arising from symmetry breaking observed for solid H2O@C60 at low temperatures. Utilizing this methodology, we compute the INS spectra of H2O@C60 for two incident neutron wavelengths and compare them with the corresponding experimental spectra. Good overall agreement is found, and the calculated spectra provide valuable additional insights.