IMPROVED MODELING OF ATOM MOLECULE POTENTIAL-ENERGY SURFACES - ILLUSTRATIVE APPLICATION TO HE-CO

The need for better potential-energy models for atom-molecule and mole cule-molecule interactions is discussed and the utility of the exchang e-coulomb (XC) model is critically examined, by fitting a potential ba sed on it to new high-resolution discrete infrared data for the He-CO Van der Waals molecule. In addition to explaining the observed spectru m as well as does an optimized empirical potential previously determin ed from the same data, the resulting XC surface is expected to be more realistic in regions not directly sampled by the fitted data.