Van der Waals Coefficients for the Alkali-metal Atoms in the Material Mediums

Abstract

The damping coefficients for the alkali atoms are determined very accurately by taking into account the optical properties of the atoms and three distinct types of trapping materials such as Au (metal), Si (semi-conductor) and vitreous SiO2 (dielectric). Dynamic dipole polarizabilities are calculated precisely for the alkali atoms that reproduce the damping coefficients in the perfect conducting medium within 0.2% accuracy. Upon the consideration of the available optical data of the above wall materials, the damping coefficients are found to be substantially different than those of the ideal conductor. We also evaluated dispersion coefficients for the alkali dimers and compared them with the previously reported values. These coefficients are fitted into a ready-to-use functional form to aid the experimentalists the interaction potentials only with the knowledge of distances.