Polarizabilities of the rare-gas homonuclear diatoms

We present a simple, analytical model of the interaction-induced polarizability of the homonuclear rare-gas diatoms which contains only one free parameter. Electrostatic and exchange contributions to the pair polarizability are derived under the assumption that the electronic properties of each atom can be simulated by a single effective electron whose average distance from the nucleus is determined by the atomic polarizability. The dipole-induced dipole contribution at short internuclear distances is damped as appropriate for any realistic model. The model permits the reproduction of the available measurements of the interaction-induced, binary depolarized Raman spectra of the rare gases. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)00138-5].