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Physical Review A

Dipole polarizabilities of excited alkali-metal atoms and long-range interactions of ground- and excited-state alkali-metal atoms with helium atoms

Cheng Zhu, A. Dalgarno, S. G. Porsev, Andrei Derevianko

Published Sep 30, 2004• 41 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The scalar and tensor dynamic polarizabilities of the first excited $^{2}P_{1∕2,3∕2}$ states of the alkali-metal atoms $\mathrm{Na}$, $\mathrm{K}$, and $\mathrm{Rb}$ are calculated using relativistic many-body perturbation theory. Comparison with experimental measurements of the static polarizabilities suggests that the errors in the theoretical predictions do not exceed 1%. The dynamic polarizabilities at imaginary frequencies are employed to calculate the long-range van der Waals coefficients for the interaction of ground-state helium atoms with the excited alkali-metal atoms to a probable error of less than 2%.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.70.032722

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The scalar and tensor dynamic polarizabilities of the first excited 2P1∕2,3∕2^{2}P_{1∕2,3∕2}2P1∕2,3∕2​ states of the alkali-metal atoms Na\mathrm{Na}Na, K\mathrm{K}K, and Rb\mathrm{Rb}Rb are calculated using relativistic many-body perturbation theory. Comparison with experimental measurements of the static polarizabilities suggests that the errors in the theoretical predictions do not exceed 1%. The dynamic polarizabilities at imaginary frequencies are employed to calculate the long-range van der Waals coefficients for the interaction of ground-state helium atoms with the excited alkali-metal atoms to a probable error of less than 2%.
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The van der Waals coefficients for the alkali-metal atoms from Na to Fr interacting in their ground states are calculated using relativistic ab initio methods. The accuracy of the calculations is estimated by also evaluating atomic static electric-dipole polarizabilities and coefficients for the interaction of the atoms with a perfectly conducting wall. The results are in excellent agreement with the latest data from studies of magnetic field induced Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions of Na and of Rb atoms. For Cs we provide critically needed data for ultracold collision studies.
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The long-range part of the interatomic interactions plays a substantial role in the collisional dynamics of ultracold gases. Here, we report on the calculation of the isotropic and anisotropic C6{C}_{6}C6​ coefficients characterizing the van der Waals interaction between dysprosium or erbium atoms in the two lowest energy levels and the ground-state alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr) or alkaline-earth-metal (Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) atoms. The calculations are done using the integral of dynamic dipole polarizabilities at so-called imaginary frequencies of the two interacting atoms. For all atom pairs, we find that the isotropic C6{C}_{6}C6​ coefficients are two or three orders of magnitude larger than the anisotropic ones. Those coefficients are essential for modeling collisional properties of heteronuclear quantum mixtures containing highly magnetic dysprosium or erbium atoms and alkali-metal or alkaline-earth-metal atoms.
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