SILVER METAL LIQUID-LIKE FILMS AS MODEL SYSTEMS

Silver metal liquid-like films are thin films of a highly concentrated suspension of a silver colloid confined to the interface between two mutually immiscible liquids. It is shown here that these colloidal fil ms may serve as convenient model systems for the investigation of a va riety of very general phenomena and issues such as: the dielectric pro perties of concentrated metal/dielectric composites at optical frequen cies; the nonlinear (second harmonic generation) optical behaviour of two-dimensional arrays of metal spheroidal particles; the nature of th e local environment of adsorbed molecules as revealed by high-pressure surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy; and nucleation and growth mechan isms in quasi-two-dimensional systems and the macroscopic patterns whi ch evolve. We also very briefly discuss the application of the films t o questions of electron transfer, catalysis, two-dimensional phases an d the crumbling transition.