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Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Energy Dispersive X-ray Tomography for 3D Elemental Mapping of Individual Nanoparticles
Published on: July 5, 2016
Visualizing screening in noble-metal clusters: static vs. dynamic
Rajarshi Sinha-Roy1,2,3,4, Pablo García-González5,4, Xóchitl López-Lozano6
1Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, CINAM, Marseille 13288, France. hans-christian.weissker@univ-amu.fr.
Abstract:
The localized surface-plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles and clusters corresponds to a collective charge oscillation of the quasi-free metal electrons. The polarization of the more localized d electrons opposes the overall polarization of the electron cloud and thus screens the surface plasmon. By contrast, a static electric external field is well screened, as even very small noble-metal clusters are highly metallic: the field inside is practically zero except for the effect of the Friedel-oscillation-like modulations which lead to small values of the polarization of the d electrons. In the present article, we present and compare representations of the induced densities (i) connected to the surface-plasmon resonance and (ii) resulting from an external static electric field. The two cases allow for an intuitive understanding of the differences between the dynamic and the static screening.
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