Potential Energies, Permanent and Transition Dipole Moments for Numerous Electronic Excited States of NaK

Recent experimental works have been devoted to the spectroscopy of highly excited states of NaK, confirming the accuracy of our previous calculations [S. Magnier and Ph. Millié, Phys. Rev. A: Gen. Phys. 54, 204 (1996)] of spectroscopic constants and potential curves. Among them, [E. Laub, I. Mazsa, S. C. Webb, J. La Civita, I. Prodan, Z. J. Zabbour, R. K. Namiotka, and J. Huennekens, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 193, 376 (1999)] have deduced from their measurements the variation of the transition dipole moment with the interatomic distance for the transition X(1)Sigma+ --> (3)(1)Pi. They have shown that a large discrepancy was observed with the previous ab initio calculations currently used as a guide for spectroscopic experiments. Upon request of several experimentalists, we have computed again potential curves for electronic states correlated up to Na(4p) + K(4s) as well as relevant permanent and transition dipole moments. We present extensive predictions for the electronic structure of NaK (potential energies, dipole moments) for which numerical data have been listed in a data base available as supplementary data. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.