Evolution of excitonic energy levels in ArN clusters: Confinement of bulk, surface, and deep valence shell excitons

The evolution of excitonic energy levels (Wannier and Frenkel type) is investigated for ArN clusters in the range N=200–106 using fluorescence excitation spectroscopy. In the case of Wannier excitons, a pronounced blue shift of the absorption bands relative to the position in the infinite solid is observed. As a consequence of the lower dimensionality, the shift of the transition energy of surface excitons is considerably smaller than that of the bulk states of clusters. The evolution with size is discussed within several theoretical models for exciton confinement. In addition, model calculations are performed for bulk excitons which give good quantitative agreement with the experimental results. In the case of n=1 Frenkel or intermediate type excitons, there are blue and red shifts observed. The spectral shift of (3p→4s) and deep valence (3s→4p) excitations differs considerably. From the shift of the transition energies the exciton mass of the (3p→4s) exciton is derived.