Ground-state reduced-potential curves and estimation of the dissociation energy of alkali-metal diatomic molecules

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Abstract
The Rydberg-Klein-Rees potentials for the ground states of alkali-metal diatomic molecules, recently obtained on the basis of new measurements employing modern techniques, have been analyzed with the use of the reduced-potential curve (RPC) method. It is shown that the behavior of this group of chemically related molecules is fully in accord with the overall regularities observed for many other groups of diatomic molecules. The RPC scheme seems to lead to a picture that might be loosely called ‘‘a periodic system of diatomic molecules.’’ The method also permits a rather accurate estimation of dissociation energies and detection of errors in the analysis of the spectra or in the calculation of the potentials in general, which is applied to a critical evaluation of some papers on alkali-metal diatomic molecules.