Hemispheroidal atomic clusters on planar surfaces

The surface influence on deposited atomic clusters is accounted for as a change in the geometry of the free cluster from spheroidal to semispheroidal (oblate and prolate) shapes. The energy levels for the electrons are calculated using a deformed oscillator quantum well plus squared angular momentum half-cut by an infinite wall located at the surface. The level scheme is used to compute the shell corrections, to which a macroscopic liquid drop energy is added. Clear minima of the total deformation energy are obtained for semispheroids at the same deformation, within a range of atom number from 2 to 100. These minima are interpreted as stable structures of various magic numbers for deposited atomic clusters.