Ionic and temperature aspects of the photoresponse of metallic clusters

A calculation of the electronic response of alkali metal clusters is carried out in the Adiabatic Time-Dependent Local Density Approximation. The role played by the ionic structure is investigated in the framework of second-order pseudopotential perturbation theory. The calculations are carried out at different temperatures, and the effect of temperature in the decay of the collective excitations is analyzed. It is found that the coupling of the electrons to the thermal vibrations of the ions accounts for the width of the plasmon resonances. Presented at the International Conference on “Atomic Nuclei and Metallic Clusters”, Prague, September 1–5, 1997.