Quintuple-zeta quality coupled-cluster correlation energies with triple-zeta basis sets

The explicitly-correlated coupled-cluster method CCSD(T)(R12) is extended to include F12 geminal basis functions that decay exponentially with the interelectronic distance and reproduce the form of the average Coulomb hole more accurately than linear-r(12). Equations derived using the Ansatz 2 strong orthogonality projector are presented. The convergence of the correlation energy with orbital basis set for the new CCSD(T)(F12) method is studied and found to be rapid, 98% of the basis set limit correlation energy is typically recovered using triple-zeta orbital basis sets. The performance for reaction enthalpies is assessed via a test set of 15 reactions involving 23 molecules. The title statement is found to hold equally true for total and relative correlation energies.     

High-quality Gaussian basis sets for fourth-row atoms

Summary Energy-optimized Gaussian basis sets of triple-zeta quality for the atoms Rb-Xe have been derived. Two series of basis sets are developed; (24s 16p 10d) and (26s 16p 10d) sets which we expand to 13d and 19p functions as the 4d and 5p shells become occupied. For the atoms lighter than Cd, the (24s 16p 10d) sets with triple-zeta valence distributions are higher in energy than the corresponding double-zeta distribution. To ensure a triple-zeta distribution and a global energy minimum the (26s 16p 10d) sets were derived. Total atomic energies from the largest basis sets are between 198 and 284E _H above the numerical Hartree-Fock energies.     

Property-optimized gaussian basis sets for molecular response calculations

With recent advances in electronic structure methods, first-principles calculations of electronic response properties, such as linear and nonlinear polarizabilities, have become possible for molecules with more than 100 atoms. Basis set incompleteness is typically the main source of error in such calculations since traditional diffuse augmented basis sets are too costly to use or suffer from near linear dependence. To address this problem, we construct the first comprehensive set of property-optimized augmented basis sets for elements H-Rn except lanthanides. The new basis sets build on the Karlsruhe segmented contracted basis sets of split-valence to quadruple-zeta valence quality and add a small number of moderately diffuse basis functions. The exponents are determined variationally by maximization of atomic Hartree-Fock polarizabilities using analytical derivative methods. The performance of the resulting basis sets is assessed using a set of 313 molecular static Hartree-Fock polarizabilities. The mean absolute basis set errors are 3.6%, 1.1%, and 0.3% for property-optimized basis sets of split-valence, triple-zeta, and quadruple-zeta valence quality, respectively. Density functional and second-order M?ller-Plesset polarizabilities show similar basis set convergence. We demonstrate the efficiency of our basis sets by computing static polarizabilities of icosahedral fullerenes up to C(720) using hybrid density functional theory.     

A comparison between plane wave and Gaussian-type orbital basis sets for hydrogen bonded systems: formic acid as a test case

The formic acid molecule, its dimers, and its molecular crystal are adopted as test systems to compare results obtained with plane wave (PW) basis sets and norm-conserving pseudopotentials to all-electron Gaussian-type orbital (GTO) calculations. The CPMD and CRYSTAL06 codes, respectively, are applied with the PBE, PW91, and BLYP density functionals. Hydrogen bonding is the leading interaction in the dimers and the crystal. In the latter, dispersive and weak C-H...O interactions are also relevant. Irrespective of the adopted functional, for all considered structures PW and GTO results converge smoothly as a function of the quality of the adopted basis sets to the same values for structures, energies of interaction, and harmonic vibrational features. To achieve a high level of mutual agreement the use of GTO basis sets of at least of triple-zeta quality including one set of polarization functions and PW basis sets with a kinetic energy cutoff higher than 110 Ry is recommended. Pros and cons of both approaches for studying molecular crystals are also discussed.     

Accurate Coulomb-fitting basis sets for H to Rn

A series of auxiliary basis sets to fit Coulomb potentials for the elements H to Rn (except lanthanides) is presented. For each element only one auxiliary basis set is needed to approximate Coulomb energies in conjunction with orbital basis sets of split valence, triple zeta valence and quadruple zeta valence quality with errors of typically below ca. 0.15 kJ mol(-1) per atom; this was demonstrated in conjunction with the recently developed orbital basis sets of types def2-SV(P), def2-TZVP and def2-QZVPP for a large set of small molecules representing (nearly) each element in all of its common oxidation states. These auxiliary bases are slightly more than three times larger than orbital bases of split valence quality. Compared to non-approximated treatments, computation times for the Coulomb part are reduced by a factor of ca. 8 for def2-SV(P) orbital bases, ca. 25 for def2-TZVP and ca. 100 for def2-QZVPP orbital bases.     

Gaussian basis sets for molecular applications

The choice of basis set in quantum chemical calculations can have a huge impact on the quality of the results, especially for correlated ab initio methods. This article provides an overview of the development of Gaussian basis sets for molecular calculations, with a focus on four popular families of modern atom‐centered, energy‐optimized bases: atomic natural orbital, correlation consistent, polarization consistent, and def2. The terminology used for describing basis sets is briefly covered, along with an overview of the auxiliary basis sets used in a number of integral approximation techniques and an outlook on possible future directions of basis set design. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relativistic Gaussian basis sets for radon through plutonium

Summary Relativistic Gaussian basis sets of neutral atoms Rn-Pu and ions Th⁺⁴, U⁺³ and Pu⁺³ in the configurations of average energies are presented. The exponent parameters of the basis sets are determined by least-squares fitting to the numerical Dirac-Fock wave functions. The total energies obtained are within 0.155 a.u. of the Dirac-Fock limits and the qualities of the basis sets are between double-zeta and triple-zeta in the valence parts. Using the exponent parameters the Breit interaction energies have been calculated by perturbation theory and the self-consistent field treatment.     

Accurate extrapolation of electron correlation energies from small basis sets

A new two-point scheme is proposed for the extrapolation of electron correlation energies obtained with small basis sets. Using the series of correlation-consistent polarized valence basis sets, cc-pVXZ, the basis set truncation error is expressed as deltaE(X) proportional, variant(X + xi(i))(-gamma). The angular momentum offset xi(i) captures differences in effective rates of convergence previously observed for first-row molecules. It is based on simple electron counts and tends to values close to 0 for hydrogen-rich compounds and values closer to 1 for pure first-row compounds containing several electronegative atoms. The formula is motivated theoretically by the structure of correlation-consistent basis sets which include basis functions up to angular momentum L = X-1 for hydrogen and helium and up to L = X for first-row atoms. It contains three parameters which are calibrated against a large set of 105 reference molecules (H, C, N, O, F) for extrapolations of MP2 and CCSD valence-shell correlation energies from double- and triple-zeta (DT) and triple- and quadruple-zeta (TQ) basis sets. The new model is shown to be three to five times more accurate than previous two-point schemes using a single parameter, and (TQ) extrapolations are found to reproduce a small set of available R12 reference data better than even (56) extrapolations using the conventional asymptotic limit formula deltaE(X) proportional, variantX(-3). Applications to a small selection of boron compounds and to neon show very satisfactory results as well. Limitations of the model are discussed.     

Optimal diffuse augmented atomic basis sets for extrapolation of the correlation energy

We seek correlation-consistent diffuse-augmented double-zeta and triple-zeta basis sets that perform optimally in extrapolating the correlation energy to the one-electron complete basis set limit, denoted oAVXZ and oAV(X + d)Z. The novel basis sets are method-dependent in that they are trained to perform optimally for the correlation energy at each specific level of theory. They are shown to yield accurate results in calculating both the energy and tensorial properties such as polarizabilities while not significantly altering the Hartree-Fock energy. Quantitatively, complete basis set limit (CBS)-/(oAVdZ,oAVtZ)-extrapolated correlation energies typically outperform, by 3- to 5-fold, the ones calculated with traditional ansatzes of similar flexibility. Attaining energies of CBS/(AVtZ,AVqZ) type or better accuracy, they frequently outperform expensive raw explicitly correlated ones. Promisingly, a limited test on CBS-extrapolated energies based on conventional basis sets has shown that they compare well even with extrapolated explicitly correlated ones. Calculated atomization and dissociation energies, molecular geometries, ionization potentials, and electron affinities also tend to outperform the ones obtained with traditional Dunning's ansatzes from which the new basis sets have been determined. The method for basis set generation is simple, and there is no reason of principle why the approach could not be adapted for handling other bases in the literature.     

Systematically convergent correlation consistent basis sets for molecular core-valence correlation effects: the third-row atoms gallium through krypton

The family of correlation consistent polarized valence basis sets has been extended in order to account for core-core and core-valence correlation effects within the third-row, main group atoms gallium through krypton. Construction of the basis sets is similar to that of the atoms boron through argon, where either the difference between core-correlated and valence-only correlation energies were calculated via configuration interaction (CISD) computations on the ground electronic states of the atoms (named cc-pCVnZ) or the sets were optimized with respect to the core-valence correlation energy and a small weight of core-core correlation energy (cc-pwCVnZ). Due to the correlation of 3d orbitals, added shells of higher angular momentum exponents compared to the valence sets are necessary to describe the core region. The pattern of added core-correlating functions is (1s1p1d1f) for double-zeta, (2s2p2d2f1g) for triple-zeta, (3s3p3d3f2g1h) for quadruple-zeta, and (4s4p4d4f3g2h1i) for quintuple-zeta. Atomic and molecular results show good convergence to the CBS limit, with the cc-pwCVnZ sets showing improved convergence compared to the cc-pCVnZ ones for molecular core-valence correlation effects. After testing the basis sets on the homonuclear diatomics Ga2-Kr2 with coupled cluster wave functions, it is concluded that a treatment of core-valence correlation effects is essential for high-accuracy ab initio investigations of third-row-containing molecules. Though the basis sets are optimal for 3s3p3d correlation, preliminary atomic and molecular results show the basis sets to be efficient with respect to 3d-only correlation, and these potentially could be used with 3d-only correlation for more qualitative studies on larger species.     

Atomic orbital basis sets for use with effective core potentials

Basis sets developed for use with effective core potentials describe pseudo‐orbitals rather than orbitals. The primitive Gaussian functions and the contraction coefficients in the basis set must therefore both describe the valence region effectively and allow the pseudo‐orbital to be small in the core region. The latter is particularly difficult using 1s primitive functions, which have their maxima at the nucleus. Several methods of choosing contraction coefficients are tried, and it is found that natural orbitals give the best results. The number and optimization of primitive functions are done following Dunning's correlation‐consistent procedure. Optimization of orbital exponents for larger atoms frequently results in coalescence of adjacent exponents; use of orbitals with higher principal quantum number is one alternative. Actinide atoms or ions provide the most difficult cases in that basis sets must be optimized for valence shells of different radial size simultaneously considering correlation energy and spin‐orbit energy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 77: 516–520, 2000     

Relativistic correlating basis sets for the sixth-period d-block atoms from Lu to Hg

Contracted Gaussian-type function sets to describe valence correlation are developed for the sixth-period d-block atoms Lu through Hg. A segmented contraction scheme is employed for their compactness and efficiency. Contraction coefficients and exponents are determined by minimizing the deviation from accurate natural orbitals generated from configuration interaction calculations, in which relativistic effects are incorporated through the third-order Douglas-Kroll approximation. The present basis sets yield more than 99% of atomic correlation energies predicted by accurate natural orbital sets of the same size. Relativistic model core potential calculations with the present correlating sets give the spectroscopic constants of the AuH molecule in excellent agreement with experimental results.     

All-electron scalar relativistic basis sets for the elements Rb–Xe

Segmented all-electron relativistically contracted (SARC) basis sets are presented for the elements ₃₇Rb–₅₄Xe, for use with the second-order Douglas–Kroll–Hess approach and the zeroth-order regular approximation. The basis sets have a common set of exponents produced with established heuristic procedures, but have contractions optimized individually for each scalar relativistic Hamiltonian. Their compact size and loose segmented contraction, which is in line with the construction of SARC basis sets for heavier elements, makes them suitable for routine calculations on large systems and when core spectroscopic properties are of interest. The basis sets are of triple-zeta quality and come in singly or doubly polarized versions, which are appropriate for both density functional theory and correlated wave function theory calculations. The quality of the basis sets is assessed against large decontracted reference basis sets for a number of atomic and ionic properties, while their general applicability is demonstrated with selected molecular examples.     

Toward accurate thermochemical models for transition metals: G3Large basis sets for atoms Sc-Zn

An augmented valence triple-zeta basis set, referred to as G3Large, is reported for the first-row transition metal elements Sc through Zn. The basis set is constructed in a manner similar to the G3Large basis set developed previously for other elements (H-Ar, K, Ca, Ga-Kr) and used as a key component in Gaussian-3 theory. It is based on a contraction of a set of 15s13p5d Gaussian primitives to 8s7p3d, and also includes sets of f and g polarization functions, diffuse spd functions, and core df polarization functions. The basis set is evaluated with triples-augmented coupled cluster [CCSD(T)] and Brueckner orbital [BD(T)] methods for a small test set involving energies of atoms, atomic ions, and diatomic hydrides. It performs well for the low-lying s-->d excitation energies of atoms, atomic ionization energies, and the dissociation energies of the diatomic hydrides. The Brueckner orbital-based BD(T) method performs substantially better than Hartree-Fock-based CCSD(T) for molecules such as NiH, where the starting unrestricted Hartree-Fock wavefunction suffers from a high degree of spin contamination. Comparison with available data for geometries of transition metal hydrides also shows good agreement. A smaller basis set without core polarization functions, G3MP2Large, is also defined.     

Auxiliary basis sets for density-fitted correlated wavefunction calculations: weighted core-valence and ECP basis sets for post-d elements

We report optimised auxiliary basis sets for the resolution-of-the-identity (or density-fitting) approximation of two-electron integrals in second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and similar electronic structure calculations with correlation-consistent basis sets for the post-d elements Ga-Kr, In-Xe, and Tl-Rn. The auxiliary basis sets are optimised such that the density-fitting error is negligible compared to the one-electron basis set error. To check to which extent this criterion is fulfilled we estimated for a test set of 80 molecules the basis set limit of the correlation energy at the MP2 level and evaluated the remaining density-fitting and the one-electron basis set errors. The resulting auxiliary basis sets are only 2-6 times larger than the corresponding one-electron basis sets and lead in MP2 calculations to speed-ups of the integral evaluation by one to three orders of magnitude. The density-fitting errors in the correlation energy are at least hundred times smaller than the one-electron basis set error, i.e. in the order of only 1-100 μH per atom.