Growth mechanism, electronic properties and spectra of aluminum clusters

The experimental and calculated photoelectron spectra and the HOMO and LUMO of Al13− cluster. [Display omitted] •The ground state structures of neutral and anionic aluminum clusters follows the periodic nuclear model growth law.•The Al7+ and Al13− clusters have very high stability and can be regarded as two superatoms.•The major dissociation products of Aln+ clusters are Al+ for small clusters and Aln-1+ for large clusters.•The ground state structures of anionic Aln− clusters are confirmed by photoelectron spectra. Density functional theory (DFT) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) have been applied to study the growth behavior, electronic properties and spectra of neutral, anionic and cationic aluminum clusters with 3–20 atoms. Many isomers have been obtained through a comprehensive structural search. The results indicate that the ground state structures of neutral and anionic aluminum clusters follow an identical periodic growth law. When the number of atoms is 6–11 and 13–18, Al atoms in these clusters grow around an octahedral cluster nucleus and an icosahedral cluster nucleus, respectively. For Aln+ (n ≤ 14 and n ≠ 7) clusters, the most stable structure is different from that of Aln or Aln−clusters. When n > 14, the ground state structure of Aln+ clusters is similar to that of Aln or Aln−clusters. The electronic properties of aluminum clusters have been analyzed by the averaged binding energy, second-order difference of energy, energy gap and dissociation energy. It is found that the Al7+ and Al13− clusters have very high stability and a large energy gap and can be regarded as two superatoms. The aluminum cluster with 18 or 40 valence electrons are the least likely to lose an electron. The dissociation behavior of Aln+ clusters caused by collision is reasonably explained by means of the dissociation energy. The optical absorption spectra of neutral aluminum clusters have been simulated by using the time-dependent density functional theory. The ground states of anionic aluminum clusters have been determined by comparing theoretical photoelectron spectra (PES) with experimental findings. Infrared and Raman spectra of cationic aluminum clusters have been forecasted and can assist in identifying the most stable structure in future experiments.