Two-electron atom

In atomic physics, a two-electron atom or helium-like ion is a quantum mechanical system consisting of one nucleus with a charge of Ze and just two electrons. This is the first case of many-electron systems where the Pauli exclusion principle plays a central role.

It is an example of a three-body problem.

The first few two-electron atoms are:

Schrödinger equation

The Schrödinger equation for any two-electron system, such as the neutral Helium atom (He, Z = 2), the negative Hydrogen ion (H^−, Z = 1), or the positive Lithium ion (Li⁺, Z = 3) is: For a more rigorous mathematical derivation of the Schrödinger equation, see also.

where r₁ is the position of one electron (r₁ = |r₁| is its magnitude), r₂ is the position of the other electron (r₂ = is the magnitude), r₁₂ = is the magnitude of the separation between them given by

μ is the two-body reduced mass of an electron with respect to the nucleus of mass M

and Z is the atomic number for the element (not a quantum number).

The cross-term of two Laplacians

is known as the mass polarization term, which arises due to the motion of atomic nuclei. The wavefunction is a function of the two electron's positions:

There is no closed form solution for this equation.

Spectrum

The optical spectrum of the two electron atom has two systems of lines. A para system of single lines, and an ortho system of triplets (closely spaced group of three lines). The energy levels in the atom for the single lines are indicated by ¹S₀ ¹P₁ ¹D₂ ¹F₃ etc., and for the triplets, some energy levels are split: ³S₁ ³P₂ ³P₁ ³P₀ ³D₃ ³D₂ ³D₁ ³F₄ ³F₃ ³F₂. Alkaline earths and mercury also have spectra with similar features, due to the two outer valence electrons.

See also

• Hydrogen-like atom
• Hydrogen molecular ion
• Helium atom
• Lithium atom

References