Pseudopotential study of the ground and excited states of Yb2

The ground state of the van der Waals-type lanthanide dimer Yb₂ has been studied by means of relativistic energy-consistent ab initio pseudopotentials using three different core definitions. Electron correlation was treated by coupled-cluster theory, whereby core-valence correlation effects have been accounted for either explicitly by correlating the energetically highest coreorbitals or implicitly by means of an effective core-polarization potential. Results for the first and second atomic ionization potentials, the atomic dipole polarizability, and the spectroscopic constants of the molecular ground state are reported. Low-lying excited states have been investigated with spin-orbit configuration interaction calculations. It is also demonstrated for the whole lanthanide series that correlation effects due to the atomic-like, possibly open 4f-shell in lanthanides can be modeled effectively by adding a core-polarization potential to pseudopotentials attributing the 4f-shell to the core. Received: 3 April 1998 / Accepted: 27 July 1998 / Published online: 9 October 1998