Cluster Physics
Small is different!
Clusters are nanoparticles with diameters from 1-10 nanometers. At this size, properties change with each additional atom. Adding just one atom might convert a metallic cluster into a cluster with a semiconductor-like gap of the density of states. There is new materials science at the far end of the nanoscale, but new techniques are required to venture into this extreme size regime.
Al13H Cluster
Cluster consisting of 13 aluminum atoms and a single hydrogen atom. The nanoparticle is double magic: it has a closed electronic (40 valence electrons) and geometric shell (13 atoms, the H atom is to small to have an effect.) Without the H atom it is unstable and highly reactive. Picture by Gotthard Seifert, TU Dresden.
S. Burkart, N. Blessing, B. Klipp, J. Müller, G. Ganteför, and G. Seifert, Experimental verification of the high stability of Al13H:building block of a new type of cluster material?", Chem. Phys. Lett. 301, 546 (1999).
Research Areas:
- Quantum Size Effects
- Cluster-Based Materials
- Hydrogen Storage
- Ultrafast Dynamics
- Nanocatalysis
- Nanomagnetism
- New Nanostructures
