Ground state potentials for alkaline-earth-helium diatoms calculated by the surface integral method

Using a recently derived simple formula the van der Waals ground state pote ntial curves of alkaline-earth-helium pairs BeHe, MgHe, CaHe, SrHe, and BaH e have been calculated. The repulsive potential is based on exchange energi es calculated from the surface integral method applied to multielectron sys tems. With the exception of the long-range dispersion coefficients all the input parameters are atomic properties of the free atoms. The agreement wit h the available potentials from the literature is reasonable. (C) 2000 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.