Linear Electric-Dipole Polarizabilities

Abstract

This article reviews the main theoretical methods and experimental techniques for determining electric-dipole polarizabilities. This review only considers the lowest-order polarizability which describes the linear response of a particle to an electric field, i.e. the induced electric-dipole moment depends linearly on the applied electric field. The scope of the review is broad: it encompasses atomic, molecular and cluster polarizabilities. Both static and dynamic polarizabilities are covered. Calculational techniques discussed in detail include variational perturbational theory, the local density approximation, and semi-empirical additivity methods. Special attention is paid to basis sets used in polarizability calculations—especially the increasingly popular Gaussian basis sets. Extensive tabulations of polarizability calculations are provided for helium and sodium atoms, the diatomic nitrogen molecule, the fullerene C60, and sodium and potassium clusters. For each of these cases, the most reliable experimental results are also provided for comparison to theory. Many traditional experimental techniques are reviewed including dielectric constant, refractive index, Rayleigh scattering, electro-optic Kerr effect, beam deflection, E—H gradient balance, and the beam resonance technique. New experimental methods for determining polarizabilities such as the light-force method and atom interferometry are also extensively discussed. In addition, a novel detection scheme that is elegant and universal—the position-sensitive time-of-flight spectrometer—is thoroughly described.

Temperature-Dependent Terahertz Spectroscopy of Liquid n-alkanes

“…The linearity of the data in Fig. 4 support the use of this additive model for linear polarizability, an approach dating back to at least the 1940's [28]. From the linear fit to these data, we extract numerical values of α 2 =1.81×10 −30 m 3 , and α 3 = 2.25×10 −30 m 3 .…”

Investigation of ac Stark shifts in excited states of dysprosium relevant to testing fundamental symmetries

“…(18) are effectively dc-polarizabilities. In this case the offresonant polarizabilities add a significant contribution to the total dc polarizabilities of states A and B in two-state dc differential polarizabilities are given by [17]: These values are comparable in size to the off-resonant contributions in (18). Note though that even if the offresonant polarizabilities are given by the interaction with far removed states, they do not add significantly to the DC polarizabilities for all transitions B→A for all isotopes.…”

“…where α m (ν) is the electric-dipole polarizability 1 of level m [17]. Note that a bold α will refer to polarizabilities and should not be confused with the fundamental constant α.…”

“…In this paper we report measurements of the differential electric-dipole polarizabilities [17] of these states in Dy. These measurements are used to assess the current systematic limit due to ac-Stark shifts of the atomic levels in the search for variation of α, and are an important check of the theory used in atomic structure calculations for heavy atoms with complex spectra.…”

Nd doped lead titanate crystals for microelectronic memory device applications

“…and La 3? ions have been reported by several researchers [44][45][46]. It has been observed that the static average electric dipole polarizability of Pb is 6.8 9 10 -24 cm 3 and Nd is 31.4 9 10 -24 cm 3 [47][48][49]. In this type of ceramics, materials have high dielectric constant at lower frequencies.…”