The unification of the atomic orbital and molecular orbital theories of the excited states of diatomic molecules is achieved by means of semi‐localized orbitals. In particular the classification of the states of the fluorine molecule arising from the interaction of two fluorine atoms in their ground state is discussed.Quantitative calculations are made for the1&Sgr;g+and3&Sgr;u+states and a comparison of the singlet‐triplet separation energies and binding energies from the three methods is made. Both two electron and eighteen electron calculations are made. The better molecular orbital calculations give a lower triplet than a singlet state. In the eighteen electron calculation the atomic and semi‐localized orbital methods coincide, and the1&Sgr;g+state is found to be the ground state.
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