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A new method is developed to calculate the photoabsorption and photoyield of small spheres. Numerical results are presented for the case of free-electron spheres for photon energies below the plasmon energies. It is found that the excitation of electron-hole pairs due to the presence of the surface results in enhancements in photabsorption and photoyields that are typically 10-102 r elative to the classical results, which only include the excitation of transverse modes. Futhermore, enchancements of the order 10-102 are found in the photoyield of small spheres relative to plane surfaces. These results are consistent with recent experimental results on a number of non-free-electron materials.
Citation
Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
Penn, D.
and Rendell, R.
(1982),
Surface Photoeffect in Small Spheres, Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)
(Accessed October 10, 2025)