Spin dynamics in sodium clusters

We investigate the dynamics of the electron cloud in a metal cluster from the regime of small oscillations up to high excitations in the multi-plasmon regime. Particular attention is paid to the effect of spin modes. Test cases are a spin saturated cluster, Na-9(+), and a strongly spin polarized cluster, the spherical isomer of Na-6(+). The spectral distributions are dominated by the Mie plasmon resonance and a strong collective spin mode in all cases considered. Nonlinear effects as cross talk between multi-plasmon states or chaotic pattern cannot be observed in the investigated energy range.