It is shown that an analytic effective potential given by a sum of Yukawa terms plus a long-ranged Coulomb tail can provide atomic data (energy levels, oscillator strengths, photoionization cross sections) of accuracy comparable to single-configuration, relativistic, self-consistent-field calculations. The Yukawa terms are weighted by shell occupancy. The screening parameters in the exponentials account for electron shielding of the nuclear charge. Parameter values are obtained by an iterative solution for the eigenvalues of a spin-averaged Dirac equation to match experimental ground-state configuration-averaged ionization energies. The configuration term structure is included by use of Condon-Slater theory. Scaling laws to adjust the screening parameters are given in order to account for multiply excited configurations, inner-core excitations, and the orbital-angular-momentum dependence of excited valence electrons. The method is used to generate prefitted effective potentials for all isoelectronic sequences up to zinc. Comparisons to experimental and self-consistent-field calculations are presented.

• Received 23 May 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.38.5007