CENTRIFUGAL BARRIER EFFECTS IN METALLIC CLUSTERS

We report calculations of Rydberg states for spherical metallic cluste rs. These calculations demonstrate that centrifugal barrier effects op erate, but that they act differently from the situation in atoms. Inst ead of orbital collapse, one sees a characteristic flattening of the e ffective potential: for Na-9 and K-9 it occurs for the l = 2 Rydberg e lectron, and for Na-21 and K-21, the l = 3 Rydberg electron, which bec ome very sensitive to core polarization effects. The effect of the cen trifugal barrier on the quantum defects has been explored for various values of angular momentum.