Electronic properties of mixed lithium-oxygen clusters

Herein electronic structure as a function of cluster size has been probed throughionization potentials measurements in order to derive general trends in the evolution of the structure and stabilityof lithium oxide clusters LinOm. The structural evolution was investigated by varyingprogressively the oxygen rate in order to observe transitions from the metallic Lin to the ionic structure (Li2O)n. We have demonstrated that this structural transition splits into three specific ranges. This result, in contrast with the general behavior observed with other electronegative elementscombined with alkaline or alkaline-earth metal clusters, but similar to what is known about BanOm andCsnOm, constitutes a signature of a specific role played by the oxygen atomswhen included inside a metallic cluster.