Microcluster Physics

Microcluster Physics provides a lucid account of the fundamental physics of all types of microclusters, outlining the dynamics and static properties of this new phase of matter intermediate between a solid and a molecule. Since originally published in 1991, the field of microclusters has experienced surprising developments, which are reviewed in this new edition: The determination of atomic structure, spontaneous alloying, super-shell, fission, fragmentation, evaporation, magnetism, fullerenes, nanotubes, atomic structure of large silicon clusters, superfluidity of a He cluster, water clusters in liquid, electron correlation and optimizsation of the geometry, and scattering.

1. What are Microclusters?.- 1.1 Constituent Small Particles of Material.- 1.2 Division of the Materials.- 1.3 Shell Periodicity of Atomic Structure.- 2. Dynamics of Atomic Structure.- 2.1 Solid-like, Liquid-like, or Fluctuating?.- 2.2 Coexistence of Solid-like and Liquid-like Phases.- 2.3 Fluctuating States and Permutation Isomers.- 2.4 Monte-Carlo Simulations.- 2.5 Spontaneous Alloying.- 3. Shell Structure of Metal Clusters.- 3.1 Magic Numbers.- 3.2 The Jellium Model.- 3.3 Theory of Shell Correction.- 3.4 Deformation.- 3.5 Fission.- 3.6 Shell Structure in Large Metal Clusters.- 4. Other Properties of Metal Clusters.- 4.1 Non-Empirical Calculation of Alkali-Metal Clusters.- 4.2 Electronic Structure of Noble-Metal Clusters.- 4.3 Magnetic Properties of Transition-Metal Clusters.- 4.4 Oscillatory Magnetic Moments of Nickel Clusters.- 4.5 Divalent-Metal Clusters.- 4.6 Trivalent-Metal Clusters, AlN.- 5. Semiconductor Clusters.- 5.1 Carbon Clusters.- 5.2 Stabilities of Silicon and Germanium Clusters.- 5.3 Nonempirical Calculations for Si6 and Si10.- 5.4 Force and Vidal Analysis of Larger Silicon Clusters.- 5.5 Recent Nonempirical Calculations for Large Silicon Clusters.- 6. Rare-Gas Clusters.- 6.1 The Magic Numbers for Packing.- 6.2 Helium Clusters.- 7. Molecular Clusters.- 7.1 Photoionization of Ammonia Clusters.- 7.2 Ion-Centered Cage Structure.- 7.3 Water Clusters.- 7.4 Negatively Charged Water Clusters.- 7.5 Electron Attachment to van der Waals Clusters.- 8. Chemical Bonds and Related Topics.- 8.1 Effects of Electron Correlation, and the Optimization of Geometry on Magnetism.- 8.2 Synthetic Chemistry in a Cluster Beam.- 8.3 Generation of a Latent Image.- 8.4 Van der Waals and Metallic Mercury Clusters.- 8.5 Scattering of Microclusters.- References.