Surface plasmon dispersion in liquid mercury

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Abstract
The electronic properties of the surface of liquid mercury have been studied from 1 to 6.5 eV via the interaction of the electromagnetic field with the surface plasmons. Our results strongly suggest the existence of an atomic configuration encompassing the outermost two or three atomic layers which is more ordered than the interior. On the basis of model calculations we also postulate a weak, but significant, interaction between the bulk and surface plasmons. The model which we propose here accounts well for our surface-plasmon data and for available ellipsometric and reflectance measurements.