Binding energy and electronic properties in antimony clusters: Comparison with bismuth clusters

TLDR: In this paper, the ionization potentials of Sb4n clusters are studied as a function of the size and the observed evolution confirms the nonmetallic character of their structure, and the possible metastable character of the Sb 4n structure is discussed and illustrated by experiments performed as the function of inert gas temperature in the clusters source.

Abstract: Antimony clusters are produced by the gas aggregation method. They are found to be built from Sb4 units. The Sb+4n clusters are demonstrated to relax their excess energy by evaporation of a tetramer and the binding energy of Sb4 in the cluster is measured to be about 1.3 eV, well below the binding energy of a Sb atom in the bulk (≊2.75 eV). The ionization potentials of Sb4n clusters are studied as a function of the size and the observed evolution confirms the nonmetallic character of their structure. These results are compared with those obtained for bismuth clusters which exhibit a very different behavior. Finally the possible metastable character of Sb4n structure is discussed and illustrated by experiments performed as a function of inert gas temperature in the clusters source.