The filling of shells in compressed atoms

Abstract

The energy spectra of ground-state, ionized and excited multielectron atoms and ions of the 3d and 4d periods of the periodic table centred in impenetrable spherical confinement are detailed using Hartree-Fock configuration average calculations. It is shown explicitly for the first time that, owing to modifications in 3d and 4d orbital collapse, the filling of shells for the confined transition sequences becomes more regular than for free atoms with increasing confinement pressure, that s-d competition disappears, and that, for d-excited states, the crossings between inner-shell excited states and the double-ionization thresholds are altered. In general, the periodic table for confined (compressed) atoms can differ from that for free atoms. The importance of these findings for different branches of basic and applied physics and chemistry is indicated.