Related papers: How Metallic are Small Sodium Clusters?
We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the melting of gold icosahedral clusters of a few thousand atoms. We pay particular attention to the behavior of surface atoms, and to the equilibrium shape of the cluster. We find that…
Recent X-ray observations of galaxy clusters show that the distribution of intra-cluster medium (ICM) metallicity is remarkably uniform in space and time. In this paper, we analyse a large sample of simulated objects, from poor groups to…
The properties of small clusters can differ dramatically from the bulk phases of the same constituents. In equilibrium, cluster assembly has been recently explored, whereas out of equilibrium, the physical principles of clustering remain…
Dipole plasmon resonances are ubiquitous in nano-particles with delocalized charge carriers. Doped semi-conductor colloidal nano-crystals constitute a novel paradigm for plasmon excitations in a finite electron system and offer the…
Through millennia humans exploited the natural property of metals to get stronger or hardened when mechanically deformed. Ultimately rooted in the motion of dislocations, mechanisms of metal hardening remained in the crosshairs of physical…
Understanding and mastering the mechanical properties of metallic nanoparticles is crucial for their use in a wide range of applications. In this context, we use atomic-scale (Molecular Dynamics) and continuous (Finite Elements)…
The role of saturation for cluster formation in finite systems such as atomic nuclei is analyzed by considering three length-scale ratios, and performing deformation-constrained self-consistent mean-field calculations. The effect of…
Exact calculations of collective excitations and charge/spin (pseudo)gaps in an ensemble of bipartite and nonbipartite clusters yield level crossing degeneracies, spin-charge separation, condensation and recombination of electron charge and…
Conventional discrete-to-continuum approaches have seen their limitation in describing the collective behaviour of the multi-polar configurations of dislocations, which are widely observed in crystalline materials. The reason is that…
A dimer of bound atoms cannot melt, only dissociate. Bulk metals show a well defined first order transition between their solid and liquid phases. The appearance of the melting transition is explored for increasing clusters sizes via the…
The recent experimental discovery of ferroelectric and splay nematic phases has sparked interest in comprehending the crucial molecular features necessary to stabilize these innovative structures. This study advances the ongoing discourse…
Analytical expressions for the binding energy of electrons and positrons in dielectric clusters, analysed in this work, neglect the elastic effects. Therefore, we present the density-functional theory for neutral liquid clusters that…
We have studied the metallic behaviour in low density GaAs hole systems, and Si electron systems, close to the apparent two-dimensional metal-insulator transition. Two observations suggest a semi-classical origin for the metallic-like…
The article provides an overview of the behavior and detection of electric and magnetic dipole moments in free atomic and molecular nanoclusters.
Incipient ferroelectric KTaO3 with off-center Li impurity of the critical concentration of 2.8 mol% was investigated in order to clarify the dipole glass state under electric field. Using optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscope,…
Electrons confined to two dimensions display an unexpected diversity of behaviors as they are cooled to absolute zero. Noninteracting electrons are predicted to eventually "localize" into an insulating ground state, and it has long been…
Gold nanoclusters have been the focus of numerous computational studies but an atomistic understanding of their structural and dynamical properties at finite temperature is far from satisfactory. To address this deficiency, we investigate…
We discuss microscopic mechanisms of the violent dynamics following strong laser excitation of a metal cluster embedded in a rare gas matrix, taking as test case Na$_8$@Ar$_434$. This covers at least two aspects : first, it represents the…
The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of small ${\rm Fe}_m {\rm Rh}_n$ clusters having $N = m+n \leq 8$ atoms are studied in the framework of a generalized-gradient approximation to density-functional theory. For $N = m+n \leq…
We develop a general quantum theory of the coupled plasmonic modes resulting from the near-field interaction between localized surface plasmons in a heterogeneous metallic nanoparticle dimer. In particular, we provide analytical expressions…