Low-lying electronic states of the diatomic sodium antimonide cation

We investigate structural features, electronic characters and transition properties of NaSb +, a hitherto ex-perimentally unknown system, by using a high-level computation methodology. Information with respect to the manifold of thirteen low-lying A-S electronic states, associated with both Na+ + Sb and Na + Sb+ dissociation limits, which split into twenty-four Q states through the spin-orbit coupling effect, are well determined and analyzed. Detailed analyses of the electronic structures explain the formation of each bound A-S states, and the extent of perturbations originated from the spin-orbit coupling effect to the Q states are characterized through discussions on the spin-orbit matrix elements. (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.