Size-dependent core-level spectroscopy of free neutral clusters

Studies of the electronic and geometric structure of free clusters are presented to highlight the application of core-level spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation to cluster physics. The study of electronic structure deals with the excitation of the C 1s electron to the Rydberg states of the molecule in CH4 clusters and demonstrates the gradual evolution of the surface and bulk-specific spectral features with cluster size. A second study investigates the K-edge excitations in Ne clusters and is concerned with extracting structural information from the X-rays Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES)