We investigate the interaction of ground and excited states of a silver atom with noble gases (NG), including helium. Born-Oppenheimer potential energy curves are calculated with quantum chemistry methods and spin-orbit effects in the excited states are included by assuming a spin-orbit splitting independent of the internuclear distance. We compare our results with experimentally available spectroscopic data, as well as with previous calculations. Because of strong spin-orbit interactions, excited Ag-NG potential energy curves cannot be fitted to Morse-like potentials. We find that the labeling of the observed vibrational levels has to be shifted by one unit.
Categories: physics.chem-ph physics.atm-clus physics.atom-ph