Title:
Electric deflection measurements of sodium clusters in a molecular beam

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dc.contributor.advisor de Heer, Walter A.
dc.contributor.author Liang, Anthony en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Chou, Mei-Yin
dc.contributor.committeeMember First, Phillip
dc.contributor.committeeMember Whetten, Robert
dc.contributor.committeeMember Zangwill, Andrew
dc.contributor.department Physics en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2010-01-29T19:47:01Z
dc.date.available 2010-01-29T19:47:01Z
dc.date.issued 2009-11-10 en_US
dc.description.abstract Rotationally averaged polarizabilities and intrinsic electric dipole moments of sodium clusters are measured and reported. The experimental method is a molecular beam deflection. Our precision is the highest (<5%) and the range of the cluster sizes is the broadest to date (Na₁₀ ∼ Na₃₀₀). Compared to the earlier measurements, our data covers all sizes with no gaps up to the largest cluster. The fine structure in the polarizability curve is previously unobserved. We have carefully ruled out several possible explanations. And we find an earlier existing theory could explain the facts but will lead to magic numbers which were not seen in some previous experiments. A detailed theory is needed to understand the behaviors we see. Intrinsic electric dipole moments (EDM) of sodium clusters are probed to answer the intriguing question: Do metal clusters develop electric dipole moments like molecules? Some theories have predicted the existence of EDM in ground state sodium clusters and gave their magnitudes. We put upper bounds on the EDM of sodium clusters and find that they are orders of magnitude smaller than the predictions. This provokes an interesting question: how can one define metallicity in metal clusters? Our measurements are performed at cryogenic temperature 20 Kelvin. At this temperature the clusters are believed to be in their vibronic ground states. en_US
dc.description.degree Ph.D. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31750
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Shell structure en_US
dc.subject Electric dipole moment en_US
dc.subject Molecular beam en_US
dc.subject Clusters en_US
dc.subject Gas phase en_US
dc.subject Alkali en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Microclusters
dc.subject.lcsh Sodium Dipole moments
dc.subject.lcsh Polarizability (Electricity)
dc.title Electric deflection measurements of sodium clusters in a molecular beam en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor de Heer, Walter A.
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename School of Physics
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 8ab28407-deb7-4b22-bb02-63fe30f19375
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 2ba39017-11f1-40f4-9bc5-66f17b8f1539
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