26 research outputs found
Semiclassical theory of surface plasmons in spheroidal clusters
A microscopic theory of linear response based on the Vlasov equation is
extended to systems having spheroidal equilibrium shape. The solution of the
linearized Vlasov equation, which gives a semiclassical version of the random
phase approximation, is studied for electrons moving in a deformed equilibrium
mean field. The deformed field has been approximated by a cavity of spheroidal
shape, both prolate and oblate. Contrary to spherical systems, there is now a
coupling among excitations of different multipolarity induced by the
interaction among constituents. Explicit calculations are performed for the
dipole response of deformed clusters of different size. In all cases studied
here the photoabsorption strength for prolate clusters always displays a
typical double-peaked structure. For oblate clusters we find that the
high--frequency component of the plasmon doublet can get fragmented in the
medium size region (). This fragmentation is related to the
presence of two kinds of three-dimensional electron orbits in oblate cavities.
The possible scaling of our semiclassical equations with the valence electron
number and density is investigated.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, revised version, includes discussion of scalin
Rough droplet model for spherical metal clusters
We study the thermally activated oscillations, or capillary waves, of a
neutral metal cluster within the liquid drop model. These deformations
correspond to a surface roughness which we characterize by a single parameter
. We derive a simple analytic approximate expression determining
as a function of temperature and cluster size. We then estimate the
induced effects on shell structure by means of a periodic orbit analysis and
compare with recent data for shell energy of sodium clusters in the size range
. A small surface roughness \AA~ is seen to
give a reasonable account of the decrease of amplitude of the shell structure
observed in experiment. Moreover -- contrary to usual Jahn-Teller type of
deformations -- roughness correctly reproduces the shape of the shell energy in
the domain of sizes considered in experiment.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, important modifications of the presentation, to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Ionic and electronic structure of sodium clusters up to N=59
We determined the ionic and electronic structure of sodium clusters with even
electron numbers and 2 to 59 atoms in axially averaged and three-dimensional
density functional calculations. A local, phenomenological pseudopotential that
reproduces important bulk and atomic properties and facilitates structure
calculations has been developed. Photoabsorption spectra have been calculated
for , , and to
. The consistent inclusion of ionic structure considerably
improves agreement with experiment. An icosahedral growth pattern is observed
for to . This finding is supported by
photoabsorption data.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B 62. Version with figures in better quality
can be requested from the author
Unified description of magic numbers of metal clusters in terms of the 3-dimensional q-deformed harmonic oscillator
Magic numbers predicted by a 3-dimensional q-deformed harmonic oscillator
with Uq(3)>SOq(3) symmetry are compared to experimental data for atomic
clusters of alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs), noble metals (Cu, Ag, Au),
divalent metals (Zn, Cd), and trivalent metals (Al, In), as well as to
theoretical predictions of jellium models, Woods-Saxon and wine bottle
potentials, and to the classification scheme using the 3n+l pseudo quantum
number. In alkali metal clusters and noble metal clusters the 3-dimensional
q-deformed harmonic oscillator correctly predicts all experimentally observed
magic numbers up to 1500 (which is the expected limit of validity for theories
based on the filling of electronic shells), while in addition it gives
satisfactory results for the magic numbers of clusters of divalent metals and
trivalent metals, thus indicating that Uq(3), which is a nonlinear extension of
the U(3) symmetry of the spherical (3-dimensional isotropic) harmonic
oscillator, is a good candidate for being the symmetry of systems of several
metal clusters. The Taylor expansions of angular momentum dependent potentials
approximately producing the same spectrum as the 3-dimensional q-deformed
harmonic oscillator are found to be similar to the Taylor expansions of the
symmetrized Woods-Saxon and wine-bottle symmetrized Woods-Saxon potentials,
which are known to provide successful fits of the Ekardt potentials.Comment: 23 pages including 7 table