Slabs of stabilized jellium: Quantum-size and self-compression effects

We examine thin films of two simple metals (aluminum and lithium) in the stabilized jellium model, a modification of the regular jellium model in which a constant potential is added inside the metal to stabilize the system for a given background density. We investigate quantum-size effects on the surface energy and the work function. For a given film thickness we also evaluate the density yielding energy stability, which is found to be slightly higher than the equilibrium density of the bulk system and to approach this value in the limit of thick slabs. A comparison of our self-consistent calculations with the predictions of the liquid-drop model shows the validity of this model.