Lecture 21More on singlet and triplet helium

(c) So Hirata, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This material has been developed and made available online by work supported jointly by University of Illinois, the

National Science Foundation under Grant CHE-1118616 (CAREER), and the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. through the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not

necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

Singlet and triplet helium We obtain mathematical explanation to the

shielding and Hund’s rule (spin correlation or Pauli exclusion principle) as they apply to the singlet and triplet states of the helium atom.

We discuss spin angular momenta of these states and consider the spin multiplicity of a general atom.

Orbital approximation The orbital approximation: an approximate or

forced separation of variables

We must consider spin and anti-symmetry:

Antisymmetrizer that forms an antisymmetric linear combination of products

Spin variable

Normalization coefficient Orthonormal

Normalized wave functions in the orbital approximation For singlet (1s)2 state of the helium atom:

Orthonormal

Normalized wave functions in the orbital approximation For triplet (1sα)1(2sα)1 state of the helium

atom:

Approximate energy

Energy: (1s)2 helium

Energy: (1s)2 helium

1 by normalization

0 by orthogonality

Energy: (1s)2 helium

(1s) energy of electron 1

(1s) energy of electron 2

Coulomb repulsion of electrons 1 and 2 – Shielding effect Probability density of

electrons 1 and 2

Energy: (1sα)1(2sα)1 helium

Energy: (1sα)1(2sα)1 helium

1 by normalization

0 by orthogonality

Energy: (1sα)1(2sα)1 helium(1s) energy of electron 1

(2s) energy of electron 2

Coulomb or Shielding effect

Exchange term– lowers the energy only when two spins are the same (Hund’s rule)

Total spins of singlet and triplet Singlet

Triplet

Antisym.Sym.

Sym.Antisym.

Spin angular momentum operators

Total z-component spin angular momentum operator:

Spin operators

Total spin of singlet

Total spin of singlet

1s

2s

Singlet

Total spins of triplet

Total spin of triplet

1s

2s

Triplet

Spin multiplicity S = 0: singlet (even number of electrons) S = ½ : doublet (odd) S = 1: triplet (even) S = 1½ : quartet (odd)

All radiative transitions between states with different spin multiplicities are forbidden.

Atoms with S > 0 are magnetic and highly degenerate.

Summary The expectation value of the Hamiltonian in

the normalized, antisymmetric wave function of the helium atom is a good approximation to its energy.

It mathematically explains the shielding and spin correlation effects.

Total spin angular momenta of the helium atom in the singlet and triplet states are obtained. The concept of the spin multiplicity is introduced.