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We study the ground state structure and aspects of photoionization dynamics of the Na20@C240 endofullerene. The structure shows effects from the electronic coupling between the nested cluster and the fullerene cage. They include the (i) alterations of the overall potential, and thus, the force field, (ii) electron transfer from the cluster to the fullerene forming ionic units, and (iii) hybridization from the admixture of free Na20 occupied levels with experimentally known super-atom molecular orbital (SAMO) type empty levels of C240 accessible in the jellium-density functional theory model. These modifications influence the photoionization dynamics of the endofullerene. For the high energy ionization of Na20-type levels, a significant overall enhancement of the cross section is noted from additional ionizing force that C240 offers. More remarkably, the photoexcited plasmons, both the giant plasmon and the higher energy plasmon, in C240 decay in parts through Na20 ionization continuum via the resonant intercluster Coulombic decay (ICD) process. These lead to dramatic enhancements in the ionization of individual Na20-type levels, resulting in enhancements in the cluster’s total ionization yield. Based on hybridization, this enhancement incorporates a coherent mixing of the ICD and SAMO-induced Auger-decay amplitude, in which the ICD contribution is dominant. 

Access to time delay in a projectile-target scattering is a fundamental tool in understanding their interactions by probing the temporal domain. The present study focuses on computing and analyzing the Eisenbud-Wigner-Smith (EWS) time delay in low energy elastic e−C60 scattering. The investigation is carried out in the framework of a non-relativistic partial wave analysis (PWA) technique. The projectile-target interaction is described in (i) Density Functional Theory (DFT) and (ii) Annular Square Well (ASW) static model, and their final results are compared in details. The impact of polarization on resonant and non-resonant time delay is also investigated. 

The ground state and photoionization properties of Nax (x = 20, 40, and 92) clusters are investigated using a method based on density functional theory (DFT) in a spherical jellium frame. Two different exchange–correlation treatments with the Gunnarsson–Lundqvist parametrization are used: (i) the electron self-interaction correction (SIC) scheme and (ii) the van Leeuwen–Baerends (LB94) scheme based on the gradient of the electron density. The shapes of the mean-field potentials and bound state properties, obtained in the two schemes, qualitatively agree, but differ in the details. The effect of the schemes on the photoionization dynamics, calculated in linear response time-dependent DFT is compared, in which the broader features are found to be universal. The general similarity of the results in SIC and LB94 demonstrates the reliability of DFT treatments. The study further elucidates the evolution of the ground state and ionization description as a function of the cluster size. 

Light-induced energy confinement in nanoclusters via plasmon excitations influences applications in nanophotonics, photocatalysis, and the design of controlled slow electron sources. The resonant decay of these excitations through the cluster’s ionization continuum provides a unique probe of the collective electronic behavior. However, the transfer of a part of this decay amplitude to the continuum of a second conjugated cluster may offer control and efficacy in sharing the energy nonlocally to instigate remote collective events.With the example of a spherically nested dimer Na20@C240 of two plasmonic systems we find that such a transfer is possible through the resonant intercluster Coulombic decay (RICD) as a fundamental process. This plasmonic RICD signal can be experimentally detected by the photoelectron velocity map imaging technique.