English

Bosonic Helium droplets with cationic impurities: onset of electrostriction and snowball effects from quantum calculations

Chemical Physics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

Variational MonteCarlo and Diffusion MonteCarlo calculations have been carried out for cations like Li+^+, Na+^+ and K+^+ as dopants of small helium clusters over a range of cluster sizes up to about 12 solvent atoms. The interaction has been modelled through a sum-of-potential picture that disregards higher order effects beyond atom-atom and atom-ion contributions. The latter were obtained from highly correlated ab-initio calculations over a broad range of interatomic distances. This study focuses on two of the most striking features of the microsolvation in a quantum solvent of a cationic dopant: electrostriction and snowball effects. They are here discussed in detail and in relation with the nanoscopic properties of the interaction forces at play within a fully quantum picture of the clusters features.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0702169,
  title  = {Bosonic Helium droplets with cationic impurities: onset of electrostriction and snowball effects from quantum calculations},
  author = {E. Coccia and E. Bodo and F. Marinetti and F. A. Gianturco and E. Yildrim and M. Yurtsever and E. Yurtsever},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0702169},
  year   = {2007}
}