A refined measurement of a binary, collision-induced, depolarized Raman spectrum of mercury vapor is analyzed in terms of recent interatomic potential and interaction-induced pair polarizability models, using quantum line-shape computations. The comparison of the computed spectra with a measurement at the temperature of 1070 K permits improvements, especially of the existing anisotropy model of the pair polarizability. The main result of this paper is that for highly polarizable atoms (such as Hg), especially at elevated temperatures, the long-range contribution to the pair polarizability needs to be suppressed at short interatomic distances. This is done with the help of damping functions, known from interatomic potential models.

• Received 6 October 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.57.2635