Dynamic effect of electron-number parity in metal nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the influence of electron-number parity on the spin dynamics of silver nanoparticles, using NMR to detect parity-dependent effects and modeling relaxation rates.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental detection of electron-number parity effects in metal nanoparticles through NMR measurements and theoretical modeling.

Findings

NMR relaxation rate is proportional to electron-number-parity-dependent susceptibility.

Electron-number parity significantly affects spin dynamics in silver nanoparticles.

Theoretical modeling aligns with experimental NMR data.

Abstract

Parity is a ubiquitous notion in science and serves as a fundamental principle for describing a physical system. Nanometer-scale metal objects are predicted to show dramatic differences in physical properties depending on the electron-number parity. However, the identification of the electron-number parity effects in real metal nanoparticles has remained elusive because of the variations in various features of nanoparticles. Here we report the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) detection of the dynamic effect of the electron-number parity in silver nanoparticles. With theoretical modeling of the NMR relaxation in silver nanoparticles, the measured nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate is found to be proportional to the electron-number-parity-dependent susceptibility and to the temperature. This observation demonstrates the electron-number-parity-governed spin dynamics in silver nanoparticles.