Rough droplet model for spherical metal clusters

Abstract

We study the thermally activated oscillations, or capillary waves, of a neutral metal cluster within the liquid drop model. These deformations correspond to a surface roughness which we characterize by a single parameter $\Delta$. We derive a simple analytic approximate expression determining $\Delta$ as a function of temperature and cluster size. We then estimate the induced effects on shell structure by means of a periodic orbit analysis and compare with recent data for shell energy of sodium clusters in the size range $50 < N < 250$. A small surface roughness $\Delta\simeq 0.6$ \AA~ is seen to give a reasonable account of the decrease of amplitude of the shell structure observed in experiment. Moreover -- contrary to usual Jahn-Teller type of deformations -- roughness correctly reproduces the shape of the shell energy in the domain of sizes considered in experiment.