Benchmark calculations of atomic data for plasma and lighting applications

Klaus Bartschat, Oleg Zatsarinny
2011 Plasma Sources Science & Technology  
Accurate and complete sets of atomic structure and collision data are important for many applications in plasma physics, in particular the modeling and diagnostic of discharges. In recent years, we have developed a general B-spline R-matrix (BSR) approach [1, 2] that has been applied with great success to the calculations of such data both for the target structure (energy levels and oscillator strengths) and electron collisions with atoms and ions. A general computer code of the nonrelativistic
more » ... and semirelativistic versions, with the latter accounting for relativistic effects through the most important terms of the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian, was published [3], and we now have a fully relativistic (Dirac) DBSR program working as well. The latter was already applied to a variety of heavy targets, including Cs [4], Au [5, 6], Hg [7, 8] , and most recently the heavy noble gases Kr and Xe [9] . The principal idea behind these calculations is the solution of the close-coupling equations for electron scattering, using an R-matrix approach. The distinguishing features of our implementation compared to the well-known Belfast suite of computer programs [10] are i) the use of a highly flexible B-spline basis and ii) the possibility to employ non-orthogonal sets of one-electron orbitals. The latter generally allow for a highly accurate target description with relatively small (compared to standard approaches with orthogonal orbitals) configuration-interaction expansions.
doi:10.1088/0963-0252/20/2/024012 fatcat:2nxlqo2omvb53mr64vk3uglt5q