Starting from the gas phase, small clusters can be produced and deposited with huge flexibilitywith regard to composition, materials choice and cluster size. Despite many advances inexperimental characterization, a detailed morphology of such clusters is still lacking. Here wepresent an atomic scale observation as well as the dynamical behaviour of ultrasmall germaniumclusters. using quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy in combination withab initio calculations, we are able to characterize the transition between different equilibriumgeometries of a germanium cluster consisting of less than 25 atoms. seven-membered rings,trigonal prisms and some smaller subunits are identified as possible building blocks thatstabilize the structure.
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