Density matrix averaged atomic natural orbital (ANO) basis sets for correlated molecular wave functions

Summary Generally contracted Basis sets for the atoms H-Kr have been constructed using the atomic natural orbital (ANO) approach, with modifications for allowing symmetry breaking and state averaging. The ANO's are constructed by averaging over the most significant electronic states, the ground state of the cation, the ground state of the anion for some atoms and the homonuclear diatomic molecule at equilibrium distance for some atoms. The contracted basis sets yield excellent results for properties of molecules such as bond-strengths and-lengths, vibrational frequencies, and good results for valence spectra, ionization potentials and electron affinities of the atoms, considering the small size of these sets. The basis sets presented in this article constitute a balanced sequence of basis sets suitable for larger systems, where economy in basis set size is of importance.     

Density matrix averaged atomic natural orbital (ANO) basis sets for correlated molecular wave functions

Summary Generally contracted basis sets for first row atoms have been constructed using the Atomic Natural Orbital (ANO) approach, with modifications for allowing symmetry breaking and state averaging. The ANOs are constructed by averaging over several atomic states, positive and negative ions, and atoms in an external electric field. The contracted basis sets give virtually identical results as the corresponding uncontracted sets for the atomic properties, which they have been designed to reproduce. The design objective has been to describe the ionization potential, the electron affinity, and the polarizability as accurately as possible. The result is a set of well-balanced basis sets for molecular calculations. The starting primitive sets are 8s4p3d for hydrogen, 9s4p3d for helium, and 14s9p4d3f for the heavier first row atoms.     

Density matrix averaged atomic natural orbital (ANO) basis sets for correlated molecular wave functions

Summary Generally contracted basis sets for second row atoms have been constructed using the Atomic Natural Orbital (ANO) approach, with modifications for allowing symmetry breaking and state averaging. The ANOs are constructed by averaging over several atomic states, positive and negative ions, and atoms in an external electric field. The contracted basis sets give virtually identical results as the corresponding uncontracted sets for the atomic properties, which they have been designed to reproduce. The design objective has been to describe the ionization potential, the electron affinity, and the polarizability as accurately as possible. The result is a set of well balanced basis sets for molecular calculations. The starting primitive sets are 17s12p5d4f for the second row atoms Na-Ar. Corresponding ANO basis sets for first row atoms have recently been published.     

Atomic natural orbital basis sets for transition metals

Summary We show that atomic natural orbitals are an excellent way to contract transition-metal basis sets, even though the different low-lying electronic states may have very different basis set requirements.     

Relativistic atomic natural orbital type basis sets for the alkaline and alkaline-earth atoms applied to the ground-state potentials for the corresponding dimers

New basis sets of the atomic natural orbital (ANO) type have been developed for the atoms Li–Fr and Be–Ra. The ANOs have been obtained from the average density matrix of the ground states and the lowest excited states of the atom, the positive ion, and the dimer at its equilibirium geometry. Scalar realtivisitc effects are included through the use of a Douglas–Kroll Hamiltonian. Multiconfigurational wave functions have been used with dynamic correlation included using second-order perturbation theory (CASSCF/CASPT2). The basis sets are applied in calculations of the ground-state potentials for the dimers. Computed bond energies are accurate to within 0.05 eV for the alkaline dimers and 0.02 eV for the alkaline-earth dimers (except for Be₂).Acknowledgments.ensp;B.O.R. would like to express his gratitude to Prof. Jacopo Tomasi for all the inspiration that his scientific work has given him through the years and continues to do in particular through the work on solvent effects on molecular properties. This work has been supported by a grant from the Swedish Science Research Council, VR.Contribution to the Jacopo Tomasi Honorary Issue     

Orbital connections for perturbation-dependent basis sets

Summary The use of perturbation-dependent basis sets is analysed with emphasis on the connection between the basis sets at different values of the perturbation strength. A particular connection, the natural connection, that minimizes the change of the basis set orbitals is devised and the second quantization realization of this connection is introduced. It is shown that the natural connection is important for the efficient evaluation of molecular properties and for the physical interpretation of the terms entering the calculated properties. For example, in molecular Hessian calculations the natural connection reduces the size of the relaxation term, leading to faster convergence of the response equations. The physical separation of the terms also means that first-order non-adiabatic coupling matrix elements can be obtained in a very simple way from a molecular Hessian calculation.     

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     

Orthogonal natural atomic orbitals form an appropriate one-electron basis for expanding CASSCF wave functions into localized bonding schemes and their weights

Localized bonding schemes and their weights have been obtained for the pi-electron system of nitrone by expanding complete active space self-consistent field wave functions into a set of Slater determinants composed of orthogonal natural atomic orbitals (NAOs) of Weinhold and Landis (Valency and Bonding: A Natural Bond Orbital Donor-Acceptor Perspective, 2005). Thus, the derived bonding schemes are close to orthogonal valence bond structures. The calculated sequence of bonding scheme weights accords with the sequence of genuine resonance structure weights derived previously by Ohanessian and Hiberty (Chem Phys Lett 1987, 137, 437), who employed nonorthogonal atomic orbitals. This accord supports the notion that NAOs form an appropriate orthogonal one-electron basis for expanding complete active space self-consistent field wave functions into meaningful bonding schemes and their weights.     

A critical study of basis set effects and the use of approximate natural orbitals in SCF-CI calculations of molecular geometries and heats of reaction

SCF-CI calculations have been performed on a number of chemical reactions between closed shell molecules in order to determine the heats of reaction. Contracted Gaussian type atomic basis sets of three different qualities were used and the CI calculations were performed in a truncated approximate natural orbital space. The conclusions to be drawn from these calculations are rather pessimistic. For heats of reaction, errors up to 6 kcal/mole are obtained on the SCF-level with a double zeta plus polarization atomic basis. A further improvement is only possible if extended basis sets are used. Correlation effects on heats of reaction are of the same size and CI calculations are therefore only meaningful with large atomic basis sets.For the CI calculations a one-electron space of approximate natural orbitals, obtained from second order RS perturbation theory, was used. Different truncations, using the occupation number as criterion, were tested. The general conclusion is that errors in energy differences obtained with a truncated basis set are of the same magnitude as the error in the total correlation energy. In practice this means that not more than 20–30% of the approximate natural orbitals can be deleted if the error is to be kept less than a few kcal/mole.Finally the truncation error in calculations of bond distances was tested for a few cases. Errors of around 10% of the total change due to correlation were found when 30% of the lowest occupied natural orbitals were deleted.     

On the use of local basis sets for localized molecular orbitals

Two procedures are discussed for the direct variational optimization of localized molecular orbitals which are expanded in local subsets of the molecular basis set. It is shown that a Newton-Raphson approach is more efficient than an iterative diagonalization scheme. The effect of the basis-set truncation on the quality ofab-initio SCF results is investigated for Be, Li₂, HF, H₂O, NH₃, CH₄ and C₂H₆.     

Medium-size polarized basis sets for high-level-correlated calculations of molecular electric properties

Summary The basis set polarization approach is employed for the generation of medium-size polarized GTO/CGTO basis sets for calculations of molecular dipole moments and polarizabilities. The excellent performance of the [13.10.4/7.5.2] GTO/CGTO polarized basis sets derived for Si through Cl is illustrated by the atomic polarizability results and SCF and MBPT data for dipole moments and polarizabilities of the second-row atom hydrides. The possible applications of the electric-property oriented polarized basis sets are discussed. The basis set data for Si through Cl are those for H and C through F append the paper.     

Hartree–Fock wave functions with a modified GTO basis for atoms

We have solved the atomic Hartree–Fock equations by using the algebraic approach, expanding the single-particle radial wave function in terms of a modified Gaussian type orbitals (GTOs) basis. Several atomic properties such as Kato's cusp condition for the electron density or the correct asymptotic behavior of the electron momentum density distribution are accurately verified. Additionally the energy of the atomic ground state can be obtained by using a smaller number of basis functions than in standard GTO expansions. This study has been performed for several atoms of the first three rows. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 65 : 59–64, 1997     

Medium-size polarized basis sets for high-level-correlated calculations of molecular electric properties

Summary The basis set polarization method is used to derive the first-order polarized basis sets for Ge through Br for calculations of atomic and molecular electric properties. The performance of the [15.12.9/9.7.4] GTO/CGTO basis sets generated in this study is verified in calculations of atomic dipole polarizabilities and dipole moments and polarizabilities of the third-row atom hydrides. Whenever accurate reference data are available for comparison, the excellent performance of the derived first-order polarized basis sets is demonstrated. The role of the core polarization and relativistic contributions to atomic and molecular is also investigated. The detailed basis set data for Ge through Br are given in Appendix.     

Natural spin orbital analysis of diatomic molecular wave functions in terms of generalized diatomic orbitals I. Outline of the method. Results for the ground state of H2

The method of linear combinations of generalized diatomic orbitals (LCGDO) is combined with the method of configuration interaction (CI). CI wave functions obtained in this way are finally submitted to a natural spin orbital analysis; the resulting natural spin orbitals are expansions in terms of generalized diatomic orbitals.For the ground state of H₂, a one-determinantal-approach with a single completely optimized one-electron basis function nearly reproduces the Hartree-Fock-result. The two-determinantal approach with two optimized basis functions of type _g and _u nearly gives the optimized double configuration SCF result.     

Medium-size polarized basis sets for high-level-correlated calculations of molecular electric properties

Summary The first-order polarized basis sets for the use in high-level-correlated investigations of molecular electric properties have been generated for Pb, Bi, Po, and At. The performance of the standard [10.17.14.5/13.11.8.2] and extended [20.17.14.9/13.11.8.4] basis sets has been examined in nonrelativistic and quasirelativistic calculations for atoms and simple closed-shell hydrides. The relativistic contributions to electric dipole properties of those systems have been evaluated by using the recently developed quasirelativistic scheme. The predicted dipole polarizability of At is in good agreement with the results of other relativistic calculations. The calculated quasirelativistic dipole moments of BiH₃ (–0.499 a.u.), PoH₂ (–0.207 a.u.), and AtH (+0.036 a.u.) involve a significant relativistic contribution which amounts to —0.230 a.u., –0.177 a.u., and –0.097 a.u., respectively. The basis set details append this paper. They are also available as a part of the basis set library of the MOLCAS system.     

Transformation of Bloch representation into atomic orbital representation and combined matrix element calculation technique for spatially bounded basis functions in crystals

A method is proposed for transforming the Hamiltonian from Bloch to atomic function representation. For spatially bounded functions, this is a rigorous method based on solution of a certain algebraic system of equations. Unlike the conventional procedure based on integration over the Brillouin zone, the new method requires knowledge of the matrix elements of the Bloch representation only at several points of the Brillouin zone. The number of these points is determined by the trimming radius for the spatially bounded functions and by the lattice constant. The method can be used for calculating matrix elements in a basis of atomic functions and for reducing computations in matrix element calculations of the Bloch representation for procedures using numerical integration.     

Standardized basis sets for high-level-correlated relativistic calculations of atomic and molecular electric properties in the spin-averaged Douglas-Kroll (no-pair) approximation I. Groups Ib and IIb

Summary The technique developed earlier for the generation of the so-called first-order polarized basis sets for accurate non-relativistic calculations of molecular electric properties is used to obtain similar basis sets suitable for calculations in the Douglas-Kroll no-pair approximation. The corresponding (relativistic) basis sets are devised for atoms of the Groups Ib and IIb of the periodic table and tested in calculations of atomic polarizabilities and dipole moments of the coinage metal hydrides. Excellent performance of these basis sets has been found in the case of molecular calculations.