Relaxation energy, AES

As none of the a values varies with the Si/Al ratio it may be concluded from equation (17) that no change in extra-atomic relaxation energy AE is responsible for the variations of binding energies shown in Figure 8. 

Table 4.1. Specific surface energies E , specific surface energies of the rigid lattice (0) and relaxation energies AE computed for several rare gas, alkali halide and metaj surfaces.(After ref. (2]).

The stability of a dimer is further influenced by the deformation of the monomers upon formation of the complex. This can be evaluated by subtracting the energy of the optimized isolated monomers (E, E ) from the energies of the monomers in the dimer geometry (E, E ). The respective deformation (relaxation) energy AE is positive (repulsive). 

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