Instability scenarios for doped He-4 clusters

In the frame of finite range density functional (FRDF) theory, we review the systematics of energetic features of He-4(N) clusters doped with atomic or molecular impurities, as well as the instability scenario of their collective motions. It is shown that for drops up to N=500, the predictions of FRDF theory are coincident with those arising from microscopic many-body calculations that employ variational or diffusion Monte Carlo methods. For larger drops, the present description predicts a smooth approach to zero of the collective energies, a scenario that appears to support the most recent experimental data and microscopic calculations that demonstrate that the impurity is located within the bulk of the drop. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.