Strong pair correlation in small metallic nanoclusters: the energy spectrum

The electronic shell structure in small metallic nanoclusters leads to high level degeneracy, which is strongly beneficial for the appearance of pair correlation. This results in a high value of T<Subscript>c</Subscript> as well as in the appearance of a superconducting gap which causes a strong modification of the energy spectrum. The electronic energy spectrum becomes strongly temperature dependent. Consequently, specific experiments to demonstrate the presence of pair correlation can be proposed. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2005