STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS AND THERMODYNAMICS OF SMALL PARTICLES AND INORGANIC CLUSTERS

This invited review attempts to draw together recent advances in the s tructural characterisation of clusters and our theoretical understandi ng of dynamics, especially coexistence phenomena. It is now possible t o characterise the potential energy surface of a small cluster in grea t detail, both in terms of local minima and transition states. A selec tion of results is collected including ab initio calculations on main group ligated clusters and a wide variety of systems bound by model an alytic potentials. Useful comparisons may be made between the rearrang ement mechanisms supported by the various potential energy surfaces. F urthermore, knowledge of transition states enables us to explain the r esults of dynamical simulations in great detail, and make comparisons with thermodynamic models. For larger systems, however, the number of stationary points is daunting, yet progress is still possible in terms of the underlying potential energy surface using the harmonic superpo sition approximation.