Electric deflection studies on lead clusters

The dielectric response to an inhomogeneous electric field has been investigated for $PbN$ clusters $(N=7–38)$ within a molecular beam experiment. The experiments give clear evidence that lead clusters with 12, 14, and 18 atoms possess permanent dipole moments. For these cluster sizes, the permanent electric dipole moments strongly determine the response to the electric field, leading to a significantly increased apparent polarizability. An adiabatic polarization mechanism allows a semiquantitative explanation of the observed susceptibility anomalies. The beam profiles of most of the lead clusters with $N≠12$⁠, 14, and 18 also display a small broadening induced by the electric field, indicating permanent dipole moments of about $(0.01–0.02)D$/atom. Nearly constant dipole moments per atom for larger lead clusters $(N>20)$ manifest in a linear increase in the polarizability per atom. Also, for lead clusters such as $Pb25$⁠, which do exhibit almost no measurable beam broadening, the polarizabilties are increased compared to the bulk value. This could be partially explained by the electronic structure of the lead clusters but might be also a consequence of quenched permanent dipole moments because for highly flexible clusters only an increased beam deflection, but no broadening, will be observed.