Collective excitations in large metal clusters

Abstract

Studies of the evolution of the optical properties of metal clusters as a function of size have gained considerable attention in the last few years. One theoretical approach starts from large metal clusters, which can be described by classical electrodynamics, provided the dielectric functions of the clusters are known. the resulting resonant features in the absorption spectra are commonly called surface plasmons and are collective excitations of the electron system.The present paper discusses the electrodynamic (Mie) theory for large clusters of different metals, also considering the range of validity of this approach towards smaller cluster sizes. More details can be found in an extended review on this topic which is to be published soon [1].