AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS-TuP

Paper SS-TuP24
Alkali Ion Scattering from Metal Nanoclusters

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 6:00 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Surface Science Poster Session
Presenter: G.F. Liu, University of California, Riverside
Authors: G.F. Liu, University of California, Riverside
P. Karmakar, University of California, Riverside
Z. Sroubek, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
J.A. Yarmoff, University of California, Riverside
Correspondent: Click to Email
Neutralization during the scattering of low energy (0.5-5 keV) alkali ions provides a sensitive measure of the confined quantum states of nanomaterials. The neutral fraction (NF) for Na@super +@ scattering from small Au clusters was previously shown to be surprisingly high (up to 50%), and to decrease with increasing cluster size.@footnote 1@ This indicated that scattered alkali ions couple to atomic-like states specific to the nanoclusters, and the energy of the states is a function of the cluster size. In this work, Na@super +@, Li@super +@ and K@super +@ ions are employed to probe the presence and position of the confined states of metal nanoclusters, and their dependence on cluster size is compared. Nanoclusters are formed by deposition of Au onto TiO@sub 2@(110), and self-organized clusters are produced from Au and Ag thin films by Ar@super +@ ion sputtering. The ion scattering NFs have different dependences with respect to cluster size for each alkali projectile. The microscopic mechanisms involved in charge exchange between the alkali ions and the nanoclusters will be discussed. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@G. F. Liu, Z. Sroubek, and J. A. Yarmoff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 216801 (2004).