Energy band dispersion in photoemission spectra of argon clusters

Using photoemission we have investigated free argon clusters from a supersonic nozzle expansion in the photon energy range from threshold up to 28 eV. Measurements were performed both at high resolution with a hemispherical electrostatic energy analyser and at lower resolution with a magnetic bottle device. The latter experiments were performed for various mean cluster sizes. In addition to the ≈1.5 eV broad 3p-derived valence band seen in previous work, there is a sharper feature at ≈15 eV binding energy. Surprisingly for non-oriented clusters, this peak shifts smoothly in binding energy over the narrow photon energy range 15.5–17.7 eV, indicating energy band dispersion. The onset of this bulk band-like behaviour could be determined from the cluster size dependence.