Structural and electronic properties of neutral and ionic Ga(n)On clusters with n = 4-7.

We report the results of a theoretical study of neutral, anionic, and cationic Ga(n)On clusters (n = 4-7), focusing on their ground-state configurations, stability, and electronic properties. The structural motif of these small gallium oxide clusters appears to be a rhombus or a hexagonal ring with alternate gallium and oxygen atoms. With the increase in the cluster size from Ga4O4 to Ga7O7, the ground-state configurations show a transition from planar to quasi-planar to three-dimensional structure that maximizes the number of ionic metal-oxygen bonds in the cluster. The ionization-induced distortions in the ground state of the respective neutral clusters are small. However, the nature of the LUMO orbital of the neutral isomers is found to be a key factor in determining the ordering of the low-lying isomers of the corresponding anionic clusters. A sequential addition of a GaO unit to the GaO monomer initially increases the binding energy, though values of the ionization potential and the electron affinity do not show any systematic variation in these clusters.