Comparative analysis of nonrelativistic and relativistic calculations of electric dipole moments and polarizabilities of heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers

Abstract

We analyze the molecular electric dipole moments (PDMs) and static electric dipole polarizabilities of heteronuclear alkali dimers in their ground states by employing coupled-cluster theory, both in the non-relativistic and four-component relativistic frameworks. The roles of electron correlations as well as relativistic effects are demonstrated by studying them at different levels of theory, followed by a comprehensive treatment of error estimates. We compare our obtained values with the previous non-relativistic calculations, some of which include lower-order relativistic corrections, as well as with the experimental values, wherever available. We find that the PDMs are very sensitive to relativistic effects, as compared to polarizabilities; this aspect can explain the long-standing question on the difference between experimental values and theoretical results for LiNa. We show that consideration of relativistic values of PDMs improves significantly the isotropic Van der Waals $C_6$ coefficients of the investigated alkali dimers over the previously reported non-relativistic calculations. The dependence of dipole polarizabilities on molecular volume is also illustrated.