THE INSULATOR TO METAL TRANSITION IN DIVALENT METAL CLUSTERS: A NEGATIVE ION PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY STUDY

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins UniversityNegative ion photoelectron spectroscopy of size selected $Mg_{n}=3-35^{-}$ and $Zn_{n}=3-20 ^{-}$ was used to investigate the electronic structure evolution of magnesium $Mg_{n}$ and zinc $Zn_{n}$ clusters. In general, the 3s and 3p-derived bands were observed to merge with increasing cluster size, but local maxima for the 3s to 3p-derived band separation exist for $Mg_{10}^{-}$, $Mg_{20}^{-}$, $Mg_{34}^{-}$, $Zn_{10}^{-}$, and $Zn_{20}^{-}$. This is consistent with a shell interpretation of electronic structure