Theoretical exploration of pump and probe in medium-sized Na clusters

Abstract

We investigate pump and probe dynamics in simple metal clusters of medium size. Test cases areNa9+ andNa41+.The initial pulse ionizes the cluster and excites ionic motion by a sudden increaseof Coulomb pressure. The subsequent ionic breathing motion can be directlymapped by the probe pulses if the analysing frequency stays sufficiently below theplasmon resonance peak at all times. Pump and probe experiments could thusprovide direct access to ionic dynamics in electronically excited metalclusters, in the spirit of pump and probe experiments on small molecules.