Core polarization, relaxation, and relativistic effects in the first ionization potentials for some systems in Cu, Ag, and Au isoelectronic sequences

Abstract

Single-configuration relativistic Hartree – Fock values of the first ionization potentials for Cu through Kr7+, Ag through 16+, and Au through Pb3+ are computed in "frozen" and "relaxed core" approximations with and without allowance for core polarization. Effects of the polarization of the atomic core by the valence electron are included by introducing a polarization potential in the one-electron Hamiltonian of the valence electron. The core polarization potential depends on two parameters, the static dipole polarizability of the core α and the cut-off radius r0, which are chosen independently of the ionization potential data. It is demonstrated that by including the core polarization potential with a and r0 parameters which are simply chosen instead of being empirically fitted, it is still possible to account, on the average, for at least 70% of the discrepancy between the single-configuration relativistic Hartree – Fock ionization potentials and the experiment, a discrepancy usually ascribed to the contribution of valence-core electron correlations, and to bring the theoretical ionization potentials to an average agreement with experiment of around 1%. The core polarization contribution to ionization potentials is also compared with the contribution of the relaxation of the core and with relativistic effects. An estimate of 55.0 ± 0.1 eV is suggested as the best value of the ionization potential of Sb4+.