Size Dependence of Minimum Charge of Excited Nano‐Plasmas

The charge of ionized metal clusters is investigated at high temperatures. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are applied to describe the particle motion. While the electrons are treated as separate particles, the interaction with the ion cores is described as an external jellium potential. The final cluster charge is determined by classifying the particles into free and bound electrons. A relation between the cluster charge and cluster sizes as well as temperatures is derived from MD simulations and simple kinetic model calculations. ((c) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)