A Comment on the Energy Levels of the Lithium Atom

Frank Rioux
Department of Chemistry
Saint John's University
College of Saint Benedict

Abstract

Recently Saleh- Jahromi and Moebs (1) presented an interesting set of calculations on two-electron (He, Li+, Be2+) and three-electron (Li, Be+, B2+) species which gave reasonable agreement with experiment and were suitable for an undergraduate quantum mechanics course.

In their treatment of Li, Be+, and B2+ (1s 2 2s1) these authors assumed that the 1s and 2s orbitals had the same scale factor, alpha. The purpose of this study is to show it is posible to extend this to a two-parameter calculation (1s[alpha] 2 2s[beta]1) with out a great deal of additional mathematical effort.

Reference:

  1. Saleh-Jahromi, A.; Moebs, W.Eur. J. Phys 1998, 19, 355.

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