Supershells in Metal Clusters: Self-Consistent Calculations and their Semiclassical Interpretation

TL;DR

This paper investigates electronic shell and supershell structures in large metal clusters using self-consistent calculations within the jellium model, revealing a simple density dependence and providing a semiclassical interpretation through periodic-orbit expansion.

Contribution

It introduces a unified analysis of supershell structures in metal clusters, combining self-consistent calculations with a semiclassical framework extending previous models.

Findings

Supershell patterns depend simply on jellium density

Semiclassical periodic-orbit expansion explains supershell structures

Results apply across different metallic materials

Abstract

To understand the electronic shell- and supershell-structure in large metal clusters we have performed self-consistent calculations in the homogeneous, spherical jellium model for a variety of different materials. A scaling analysis of the results reveals a surprisingly simple dependence of the supershells on the jellium density. It is shown how this can be understood in the framework of a periodic-orbit-expansion by analytically extending the well-known semiclassical treatment of a spherical cavity to more realistic potentials.