Abstract. We investigate pump and probe dynamics in simple metal clusters of medium size. Test cases are Na₉⁺ and Na₄₁⁺. The initial pulse ionizes the cluster and excites ionic motion by a sudden increase of Coulomb pressure. The subsequent ionic breathing motion can be directly mapped by the probe pulses if the analysing frequency stays sufficiently below the plasmon resonance peak at all times. Pump and probe experiments could thus provide direct access to ionic dynamics in electronically excited metal clusters, in the spirit of pump and probe experiments on small molecules.

Print publication: Issue 20 (28 October 2002)
Received 9 July 2002, in final form 2 September 2002
Published 1 October 2002