Electric dipole polarizabilities of Nb2–27

The static electric dipole polarizabilities of Nb2–Nb27 have been measured via a molecular beam deflection method. The clusters display per-atom polarizabilities that vary between 5.4±0.3 Å3 per atom (Nb10) to 37.7±0.3 Å3 (Nb13). The factor of ∼7 variation observed in the per-atom polarizabilities is the largest observed for any metal cluster system investigated thus far and implies large size-dependent variations in their electronic and/or geometric structures.