Using a nonintegral expansion method of screened potentials about a di
splaced center (by a) the intrinsic crystal-field terms generated by t
he point charge, dipole, and quadrupole moments of a ligand have been
quantitatively estimated, The calculation has been performed within th
e Thomas-Fermi model for the screening radius 1/lambda greater than or
equal to a/3. In contrast to an almost total attenuation of the monop
ole component (of no contribution to the crystal-field splitting) the
screening efficiency for higher crystal-field terms regularly drops. T
he screening factor for the fourth-order terms does not exceed 0.5 and
that for the sixth-order, 0.3. In the case of the second-order crysta
l-field terms a particular situation is observed. Their screening fact
or for the point-charge potential reaches 0.6 for lambda a = 3 but con
tributions generated by the dipole and quadrupole components are sever
al times enhanced. This fact may explain some interpretation difficult
ies occurring often in the case of the second-order parameters and con
cerning both their magnitude and sign. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.