Energetics of convex and concave metallic surfaces

The liquid drop model is used to link properties of nearly-spherical clusters and voids in terms of a curvature-dependent surface energy. Its limiting cases for a single atom or a single vacancy measure the cohesive energy and the monovacancy formation energy, respectively. In between are large clusters and voids, the energetics of which is described by the planar surface energy and the curvature energy. Numerical results are obtained with the stabilized jellium model for simple metals and with the KKR-GF method for Cu. Step energies are estimated.