Evidence for electronic shells from plasmons
Romain Schira and Franck Rabilloud (team Physicochimie théorique), with colleagues from Lausanne and Freiburg published an article entitled "Optical properties of size selected neutral Ag clusters : electronic shell structures and the surface plasmon resonance" in the journal Nanoscale.
Plasmonic properties of silver nanoparticles are visible down to small cluster sizes of only a few tens of atoms. This unique behavior have been observed at Lausanne for clusters of 20 to 300 atoms embedded in a rare gas matrix at low temperature. Romain Schira and Franck Rabilloud have modeled the optical response of clusters within a fully quantum formalism describing both the clusters and the matrix. The theoretical predictions reproduce the experimental spectra with unprecedented accuracy.
The work highlights the high correlation between the electronic structure and the optical response. The electrons are distributed in delocalized orbitals and exhibit a shell structure 1S, 1P, 1D, 2S, 1F, etc., quite similar to the filling in the atoms.
The work highlights the high correlation between the electronic structure and the optical response. The electrons are distributed in delocalized orbitals and exhibit a shell structure 1S, 1P, 1D, 2S, 1F, etc., quite similar to the filling in the atoms.
