Size effect in electron-lattice energy exchange in small metal particles

The paper examines electron-lattice energy exchange in confined metal systems (metal islands). An expression is derived for the energy, which an electron loses per unit of time to initiate acoustic oscillations in. the lattice in accordance to the Cherenkov mechanism. In confined metal systems an electron moves, oscillating, from one potential wall to the other. The expression obtained for energy exchange converts to the generally known expression for bulk metals when the distance between the potential walls is increasing. The intensity of the bulk electron-lattice energy exchange oscillates and tends to zero at reaching a certain size with decrease of the distance between the walls. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.