Droplet model of plasma resonances in medium-size metal clusters

Abstract
We study photon absorption and scattering by medium-size N=8–20 sodium clusters, making use of the interacting boson model to describe the coupling of plasma resonances to surface oscillations and deformations of a dropletlike structure. With reasonable assumptions on the nature of the plasma resonances and their couplings, we obtain an excellent description of the experimental photoabsorption data.