Condensed Matter Physics - Crystal Binding : Binding Energy of Crystals of Inert Gases

The crystals of inert gases are molecular crystals whose atoms have completely filled outermost shells. Due to completely filled shells,these atoms have spherically symmetric electronic charge distribution. The calculation of the binding energy of such crystals has been presented. The interaction energy of molecular crystals is due to two types of interactions , namely Van der Waals interaction or London interaction and Repulsive interaction. Van der Waals interaction is a dipole induced dipole interaction which exists in two neighboring atoms so as to produce weak attractive force between the atoms. The repulsive interaction comes into play for very short distances between the atoms when the electron clouds of the atoms begin to overlap and the Pauli’s exclusion principle is violated. The total binding energy is the sum of the interaction energy due to these two interactions in equilibrium.