Size Dependence of Minimum Charge of Excited Nano‐Plasmas

Abstract

The charge of ionized metal clusters is investigated at high temperatures. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are applied to describe the particle motion. While the electrons are treated as separate particles, the interaction with the ion cores is described as an external jellium potential. The final cluster charge is determined by classifying the particles into free and bound electrons. A relation between the cluster charge and cluster sizes as well as temperatures is derived from MD simulations and simple kinetic model calculations. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Relaxation and collective excitations of cluster nano-plasmas

“…This value is in good agreement with the result of [28], while it is slightly lower than c 1 = 0.65 (a B eV) −1 as found in Ref. [30].…”

“…The cluster charging itself can be studied using an alternative technique proposed in Refs. [30,31]. Here, the electrons are constrained within the sphere R i by a special wall potential during the equilibration.…”

“…A more detailed discussion of the general form of relation ( 4) is found in Ref. [30]. Another interesting signature of the cluster charging after the deconfinement at t 0 is the change of temperature because the emitted electrons extract kinetic energy from the excited cluster so that the final temperature of the cluster is lower than the initial temperature T 0 = T (t 0 ), i.e.…”

“…In Refs. [25][26][27][28][29][30][31], the RMD method was used to study the properties of surface and volume plasmons in particular its dependence on the cluster size, plasma density, the ion ordering parameter and the specific type of the interaction potential. The dynamical properties of electrons and their response to external fields were described by correlation functions.…”

“…Coul, T 0 = 2.2eV Erf, T 0 =2.2eV Erf, T 0 =3.0eV Jellium T 0 = 2.2 eV Jellium, Ref [30]. Z ef f = 0:55R i T -n The final cluster charge Z fin in dependence on the product of the cluster radius R i and the final electron temperature T fin .…”