Surface Plasmons in the Continuum

Naturally, the quantum mechanical description calls for the incorporation of the ionization process, thereby making the <i>ab initio</i> calculations challenging.

We present a robust approach within the time-evolution formalism of the time-dependent density-functional theory to calculate surface plasmon resonances in the continuum of metal clusters. Using the much studied Al13− as a system of reference, we show that accurate description of the continuum and of the ionization of the cluster allows to capture a broad surface-plasmon in the ultraviolet. Application of this approach in aluminum clusters has given the size-dependent evolution from discrete spectral features in Al₆ to the surface-plasmon in larger clusters in the deep ultraviolet.