Electronic Shell Structure and Metal Clusters

The chapter presents a study on electronic shell structure and metal clusters. Unlike the “macroscopic” atoms, the metallic clusters described from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints in this chapter come far closer to having bulk properties, because they are 10–100 times bigger. The science of clusters is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field with great promise for the production of new ideas and physical systems. Its ideas are relevant to related problems in the physics of atoms, molecules, condensed matter, and transitions among these systems. The chapter presents a review emphasizing on the electronic shell model, which is elegant and simple, avoids the complexity of elaborate quantum chemical computer calculations for clusters containing large numbers of atoms, and possesses the power of predictability. The study of the physical properties of states intermediate between the atom and the solid is called cluster physics. Lacking a precise definition, it is said that a cluster is a stable group of a few or a few hundred identical atoms or molecules. This chapter mainly discusses metal clusters. Atomic theory depends on the application of angular momentum conditions in the Coulomb field.