Core-Hole Screening as a Probe for a Metal-to-Nonmetal Transition in Lead Clusters

Metal clusters serve as model systems to study basic problems of electronic correlation. Vacuum ultraviolet light from the free-electron laser FLASH ionizes 5d electrons from mass-separated negatively charged clusters, thus transiently leading to core-ionized neutral systems. Shielding of the core hole affects the electron binding energy. From the strong deviation from expectations of the metallic droplet and jellium models we conclude on reduced electronic shielding once the cluster size falls below about 20 atoms. This suggests a metal-to-nonmetal transition, in agreement with previous local density approximation calculations