THEORETICAL-STUDY OF SMALL ARN-ASTERISK CLUSTERS IN LOW-LYING ELECTRONIC STATES

Rydberg excited rare gas atom clusters are treated by the diatomics-in-ionic-systems (DIIS) method and by a simple model approach. According to the results of the calculations, metastable clusters Ar(n)* (n > 2) are not formed, most probably, from the lowest excited state (4s), but can be formed from higher excited states such as 4p. DIIS calculations of small Ar(n) van der Waals clusters provide the excitation energy dependence on the number n of atoms. The model calculation shows that in the Ar13 van der Waals clusters the excited electron is pushed away from the inner cluster region to the outside region.