Studies of rotational predissociation of van der Waals molecule by the method of complex coordinate

Abstract

A practical method is presented for calculating resonance energies and widths (lifetimes) of metastable states of van der Waals molecules, incorporating the use of complex coordinate transformation and square‐integrable basis functions. The utility of the method is illustrated through a study of the level widths and energies of rotationally predissociating atom–diatom model systems. Satisfactory agreement with previous works was found. Besides involving only bound state calculations and being free from imposement of boundary conditions, the method can be readily extendable to multichannel coupling problems.