CORE-NONPENETRATING RYDBERG STATES: SPECTROSCOPIC BLACK HOLES

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

1994

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Ohio State University

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

Abstract

At first glance the exchange of energy and angular momentum between a particle as light as an electron and a system as heavy as a molecular cation seems improbable and inefficient. Molecular Rydberg spectra can reveal the nature and strength of the $e^{-}$/Ion coupling mechanisms. Our studies of the alkaline earth monohalides (CaF, CaCl, BaP), examples of uniquely simple $e^{-}/MX^{+}$ system consisting of two closed shell ions $(M^{2+}$ and $X^{-}$) where $MX^{+}$ has enormous and easily calculable multipole moments, have revealed the outline of a simple picture of the $e^{-}/MX^{+}$ interaction mechanisms. There are two types of Rydberg series, \textbf{core-non penetrating} (near-integer effective principal quantum number $n^{*}$,negligible {l}-mixing, rapid {l}-uncoupling, unusual sensitivity to isotopic substitution or vibrational excitation through dependence of the multipole moments on the $M^{2+}$ to center-of-mass distance) and {core-penetrating} (severe {l}-mixing among all of the penetrating-{l}-values as manifest in $s\sim p\sim d \sim f$ supercomplexes, slow and incomplete {l}-uncoupling, and $n^{+-}$ scaling of fine structure $parameters^{1}$). The structure and dynamics of non penetrating series are well described by a long-range multipole $model^{2,3}$. Each penetrating series may be viewed as built on an $n^{3/2}$ scaled replica of a valence $state^{1}$, where the valence state is well described by ligand field $theory^{4}$. The picture is completed by outside the core dipole and quadrupole interactions between penetrating and non penetrating $series^{5}$. Although by revealing the values of the ion-core multipole moments and polarizabilities, the non penetrating series should pay a central role in describing the $e^{-}$/ion interaction, these series have been surprisingly resistant to direct, systematic exploration.

Description

$^{1}$J.M. Berg, J.E. Murphy, N.A. Harris, and R.W. Field, Phys. Rev. A 48, 3012 (1993). $^{2}$Ch. Jungen and E. Miescher, Canad. J. Phys. 47, 1770 (1969). $^{3}$E.E. Eyler and F.M. Pipkin, Phys. Rev. A. 27, 2462 (1983). $^{4}$S.F. Rice, H. Martin, and R.W. Field, J. Chem. Phys. 82, 5023 (1985). $^{5}$Z.J. Jakubek and R.W. Field, Phys. Rev. Lett. (1994).
Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, M.I.T.

Keywords

Citation