PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROBES OF METALLIC CLUSTERS

Two different approaches for studying the electronic structure of clusters are presented. The physical probe uses the photoexcitation of size selected alkali-atom clusters. Giant resonances govern the absorption cross-section. It is due to the collective excitation of delocalized valence electrons. The behavior of the resonance up to large sizes, 900-atom clusters for potassium and 1500-atom clusters for lithium puts into evidence the failure of the jellium model for lithium. The chemical approach makes use of the nucleation process in the presence of oxygen. From the analysis of mass spectra of oxidized products, informations are gained on the valence of metallic atom in the cluster oxide. The method is applied to europium and thulium clusters. A comparison is done with the simple case of alkali clusters.