title: Optical absorption of small copper clusters in neon: Cu(n), (n = 1-9).
abstract: We present optical absorption spectra in the UV-visible range (1.6 eV < ℏω < 5.5 eV) of mass selected neutral copper clusters Cu(n)(n = 1-9) embedded in a solid neon matrix at 7 K. The atom and the dimer have already been measured in neon matrices, while the absorption spectra for sizes between Cu(3) and Cu(9) are entirely (n = 6-9) or in great part new. They show a higher complexity and a larger number of transitions distributed over the whole energy range compared to similar sizes of silver clusters. The experimental spectra are compared to the time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) implemented in the TURBOMOLE package. The analysis indicates that for energies larger than 3 eV the transitions are mainly issued from d-type states; however, the TD-DFT scheme does not reproduce well the detailed structure of the absorption spectra. Below 3 eV the agreement for transitions issued from s-type states is better.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique de la Matiére Condensèe, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lecoultre
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rydlo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Félix
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buttet
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gilb
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Harbich
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D009356:Neon / Q000737:chemistry*; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D011789:Quantum Theory; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D009356:Neon; D003300:Copper