Interactions of lanthanide atoms: Comparative ab initio study of YbHe, Yb2 and TmHe, TmYb potentials

The results of high-level ab initio calculations are reported for the interatomic potentials describing YbHe, Yb2, TmHe and TmYb van der Waals interactions. It is found that the interaction properties of Tm and Yb are very similar and the interaction anisotropy in the TmHe and TmYb complexes is very small. We analyze the long-range behavior of the isotropic and anisotropic interaction potentials and discuss some implications for cold and ultracold atomic collisions of the lanthanide atoms. (authors)