PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY OF TRANSITION-METAL CLUSTERS

Photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) of size-selected anions is a powerful experimental technique to probe the electronic structure of transitio n metal clusters. Experiments on V and Ni clusters at several detachme nt photon energies are presented. Results on V clusters reveal clearly how the bulk band structure is developed as cluster size increases. E xperiments on Ni clusters show that the cluster electronic structure c hanges very little above the 14-atom cluster, in contrast to the magne tic properties of these clusters. The PES spectrum of the 13-atom Ni c luster is observed to be particularly narrow, suggesting that this clu ster may possess a high symmetry structure with a high degree of degen eracy. Photon energy-dependent PES spectra are shown to yield informat ion about the nature of the electronic states of the clusters.