title: Appearance of bulk properties in small tungsten oxide clusters.
abstract: Contrary to the conventional understanding that atomic clusters usually differ in properties and structure from the bulk constituents of which they are comprised, we show that even a dimer of tungsten oxide (WO(3))(2) possesses bulklike features and the geometry of a small cluster containing only 4 tungsten and 12 oxygen atoms bears the hallmarks of crystalline tungsten oxide, WO(3). This observation, based on a synergistic approach involving mass distributions under quasisteady state conditions, photoelectron spectroscopy, and first principles molecular orbital theory, not only illustrates the existence of a class of strongly covalent or ionic materials whose embryonic forms are tiny clusters but also lends the possibility that a fundamental understanding of complex processes such as catalytic reactions on surfaces may be achieved on an atomic scale with clusters as model systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284-2000, USA.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jena
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stolcic
authors.forename: Y D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gantefor
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Castleman