Ab initio MCDHF calculations of the In and Tl electron affinities and their isotope shifts

TL;DR

This study uses advanced relativistic calculations to accurately determine the electron affinities and isotope shifts of indium and thallium, confirming experimental values and exploring their electronic states and transition rates.

Contribution

It provides the first ab initio relativistic calculations of In and Tl electron affinities, validating them against experimental data and analyzing isotope shifts and metastable state lifetimes.

Findings

Calculated electron affinities agree within 1% of experimental values.

Confirmed three bound states in In$^-$ and only the ground state in Tl$^-$.

Estimated isotope shifts and radiative lifetimes of metastable states.

Abstract

We report multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction calculations on the Thallium (Tl) electron affinity, as well as on the excited energy levels arising from the ground configuration of Tl$^-$. The results are compared with the available experimental values and further validated by extending the study to its homologous, lighter element, Indium (In), belonging to Group 13 (III.A) of the periodic table. The calculated electron affinities of In and Tl, 383.4 and 322.8 meV, agree with the latest measurements by within 1\%. Three bound states $^3P_{0,1,2}$ are confirmed in the $5s^25p^2$ configuration of In$^-$ while only the ground state $^3P_{0}$ is bound in the $6s^26p^2$ configuration of Tl$^-$. The isotope shifts on the In and Tl electron affinities are also estimated. The E2/M1 intraconfiguration radiative transition rates within $5s^25p^2 \; ^3P_{0,1,2}$ of In$^-$ are used to calculate the radiative lifetimes of the metastable $^3P_{1,2}$ levels.