On electronic shells surrounding charged insulated metallic clusters

Abstract

We determine the wavefunctions of electrons bound to a positively charged mesoscopic metallic cluster covered by an insulating surface layer. The radius of the metal core and the thickness of the insulating surface layer are of the order of a couple of angstroems. We study in particular the electromagnetic decay of externally located electrons into unoccupied internally located states which exhibits a resonance behaviour. This resonance structure has the consequence that the lifetime of the `mesoscopic atoms' may vary by up to 6 orders of magnitude depending on the values of the parameters (from sec to years).