The interactions between excited and ground state rare gas atoms

Abstract

In this paper, we report on a two component potential model. A general formula for the electrostatic part is derived, giving the second order perturbation terms of the multipolar expansion. The first of these terms is the well‐known van der Waals potential. In the second section, we study the repulsive part of the potential using the Smirnov–Roueff potential: this is based on the scattering properties of the optical electron of an excited state atom on a second atom in its ground state. We introduce a correction term which enables one to find a more realistic potential well, even if the scattering length of the atom in its ground state is negative. In a third section, we apply the model to the calculation of the interaction potentials of rare gases in the first excited states, and the Ar, Kr, and Xe atoms in their ground states.