Abstract. We show that semiclassical methods provide a valid description for the electronic and ionic dynamical response of metal clusters in the regime of high excitation energies. We consider real time dynamics for electrons at a Vlasov-LDA level and include dynamical correlations by an Ühling-Uhlenbeck collision term. Coupling to ionic motion is explicitly accounted for by means of a pseudo potential. It is found that electron-electron collisions are more important than electron-ion collisions for determining the width of the plasmon response at high excitation energies. The coupling to true ionic motion yields non-adiabatic molecular dynamics which is validated on the picosecond time scale.

Print publication: Issue 9 (14 May 2000)
Received 15 February 2000