15min:

A. W. HAUSER, G. AUBÖCK, C. CALLEGARI AND W. E. ERNST, Institute of Experimental Physics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria.

We apply the Multireference Rayleigh Schrödinger Perturbation Theory of second order to obtain the adiabatic potential energy surface of the 1⁴A₂' electronic groundstate and the 2⁴E' excited state of K₃ and Rb₃. Both trimers show a typical E×e Jahn-Teller distortion in their 2⁴E' state, which is analyzed in terms of the relativistic Jahn-Teller effect theory. Linear, quadratic as well as spin-orbit coupling terms are extracted from the ab initio results and used to obtain theoretical spectra for a direct comparison to laser-induced fluorescence and magnetic circular dichroism spectra of alkali-doped helium nanodroplets [Auböck et al. J. Chem Phys. \textbf129 114501 (2008)].