Study of diatomic van der Waals complexes in supersonic beams

Laser spectroscopy of van der Waals diatoms produced in supersonic beams is a source of information on the ground- and excited-state interatomic potentials. The goal of this review article is to provide a comprehensive characterization of the MeRG and Me-2 diatoms, where Me and RG are 12-group (Zn, Cd, Hg) and rare gas atoms, respectively. As a result, the ground and a number of excited states of the molecules are characterized over a broad range of internuclear separations. Analytical functions are proposed to represent the potential energy curves in three separate regions of internuclear separation: short-range region, vicinity of the equilibrium internuclear separation, and long-range limit. Several models, trends, and regularities of dispersive interaction in the studied diatoms are observed and described. The molecular characteristics presented here are compared with experimental and ab initio results of other investigators. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.