Photoemission from small particles of Ag and Au

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Abstract
A semiclassical approach to calculate the photoelectric yield of spherical metal particles is presented, which uses a three-step model adapted to spherical geometry. A model assuming excitation, propagation to the surface, and escape to be independent and a model considering the dependence between the last two steps are compared. The calculation is done for Ag and Au particles. While good agreement with experimental data is obtained for Au, size effects produce a distortion in the low-energy range of the yield of Ag particles. This is not reflected by the models.