Dispersion coefficients for alkali-metal dimers

Abstract

Knowledge of the long-range interaction between atoms and molecules is of fundamental importance for low-energy and low-temperature collisions. The electronic interaction between the charge distributions of two ground-state alkali-metal atoms can be expanded in inverse powers of R, the internuclear distance. The coefficients ${\mathit{C}}_6$, ${\mathit{C}}_8$, and ${\mathit{C}}_{10}$ of, respectively, the ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{-}6}$, ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{-}8}$, and ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{-}10}$ terms are calculated by integrating the products of the dynamic electric multipole polarizabilities of the individual atoms at imaginary frequencies, which are in turn obtained by solving two coupled inhomogeneous differential equations. Precise one-electron model potentials are developed to represent the motion of the valence electron in the field of the closed alkali-metal positive-ion core. The numerical results for the static multipole polarizabilities for the alkali-metal atoms and the coefficients ${\mathit{C}}_6$, ${\mathit{C}}_8$, and ${\mathit{C}}_{10}$ for homonuclear and heteronuclear alkali-metal diatoms are compared with other calculations.