Basis sets for geometry optimizations of second-row transition metal inorganic and organometallic complexes

Modest-sized basis sets for the second-row transition metal atoms are developed for use in geometry optimization calculations. Our method is patterned after previous work on basis sets for first-row transition metal atoms. The basis sets are constructed from the minimal basis sets of Huzinaga and are augmented with a set of diffuse p and d functions. The exponents of these diffuse functions are chosen to minimize both the difference between the calculated and experimental equilibrium geometries and the total molecular energies for several second-row transition metal inorganic and organon etallic complexes. Slightly smaller basis sets, based on the same Huzinaga minimal sets but augmented with a set of diffuse s and p functions rather than diffuse p and d functions, are also presented. The performance of these basis sets is tested on a wide variety of second-row transition metal inorganic and organometallic complexes and is compared to pseudopotential basis sets incorporating effective core potentials.     

Correlation balance in basis sets for electronic structure calculations

The balanced addition of polarization functions to the 6–31G and 6–311G basis sets for correlated wave functions is evaluated using bond energy predictions at the MP 2 and full MP 4 levels as a measure of correlation-balanced basis sets. The homolytic dissociations of the XH bonds in H₂, CH₄, NH₃, H₂O, and HF and the XY bonds in C₂H₆, NH₂NH₂, HOOH, and CH₃OH are used as the basis for the evaluation. It is found that correlation balance is achieved for HH, XH, and XY bonds, particularly at the MP 2 level, only if at least as many polarization sets, and sometimes more, are added to the hydrogens as are added to the heavy atoms.     

Minimal basis sets in calculations of intermolecular interaction energies

Several minimal (7, 3/3) Gaussian basis sets have been used to calculate the energies and some other properties of CH₄ and H₂O. Improved basis sets developed for these molecules have been extended to NH₃ and HF and employed to H₂CO and CH₃OH. Interaction energies between XH_n molecules have been calculated using the old and the new minimal basis sets. The results obtained with the new basis sets are comparable in accuracy to those calculated with significantly more extended basis sets involving polarization functions. Binding energies calculated using the counterpoise method are not much different for the new and the old minimal basis sets, and are likely to be more accurate than the results of much more extended calculations.     

Newly developed basis sets for density functional calculations

Optimized contracted Gaussian basis sets of double-zeta valence polarized (DZVP) quality for first-row transition metals are presented. The DZVP functions were optimized using the PWP86 generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functional and the B3LYP hybrid functional. For a careful analysis of the basis sets performance the transition metal atoms and cations excitation energies were calculated and compared with the experimental ones. The calculated values were also compared with those obtained using the previously available DZVP basis sets developed at the local-density functional level. Because the new basis sets work better than the previous ones, possible reasons of this behavior are analyzed. The newly developed basis sets also provide a good estimation of other atomic properties such as ionization energies.     

Optimization of Gaussian basis sets for Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations

We investigate the optimization of Gaussian basis sets for relativistic calculations within the framework of the restricted Dirac-Hartree-Fock (DHF) method for atoms. We compare results for Rn of nonrelativistic and relativistic basis set optimizations with a finite nuclear-size. Optimization of separate sets for each spin-orbit component shows that the basis set demands for the lower j component are greater than for the higher j component. In particular, the p _1/2 set requires almost as many functions as the s _1/2 set. This implies that for the development of basis sets for heavy atoms, the symmetry type for which a given number of functions is selected should be based on j, not on l, as has been the case in most molecular calculations performed to date.     

Effective basis sets for calculations of exchange-repulsion energy

Usefulness of different Gaussian basis sets for reproducing the “tail” region of the SCF wavefunctions employed in calculations of the exchange-repulsion effect is investigated for the model He-He interaction. It has been shown that extension of the monomer-centered basis set in the scheme of regularized even-tempered basis sets [M. W. Schmidt and K. Ruedenberg, J. Chem. Phys. 71 , 3951 (1979)] can be more efficient than augmentation of the fully energy-optimized basis set with diffuse basis functions. It has been also found that Landshoff term vanishes and the “tail” region is well reproduced if monomer wavefunctions are calculated with the basis set of the dimer.     

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.     

Locally dense basis sets for chemical shift calculations

Calculations of chemical shifts have been carried out using “locally dense” basis sets for the resonant atom of interest, and smaller, attenuated sets on other atoms in the molecule. For carbon, calculations involving a 6-311G(d) triply split valence set with polarization on the resonant atom and 3-21G atomic bases on other heavy atoms result in good agreement with experiment, and are virtually identical to those found employing the larger basis on all atoms. For species such as nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine where standard balanced basis sets do not agree well with experiment, use of attenuated sets fail as well. The use of locally dense basis sets permits calculations previously impractical, and the successful application to carbon suggests that the chemical shift is most dependent on the local basis set, and less so on whether or not a balanced or unbalanced calculation is being carried out.     

Choosing GTO basis sets for periodic HF calculations

We investigate numerical linear dependencies of Gaussian-type orbital basis sets employed in the framework of the Hartree-Fock self-consistent field method for periodic structures, which so far have hampered the use of extended basis sets for non-ionic crystals. These linear dependencies occur when diffuse basis functions are included in a basis set in an uncontrolled manner. We use the condition number of the overlap matrix to lead us in the construction of extended basis sets for periodic structures which avoid numerical linear dependencies. Extended basis sets of high quality are optimized for a number of periodic structures (fcc He, α-Be, α-BN, and B1 NaF) with respect to the energy of the constituent atoms or ions. The results obtained with our basis sets, which do not require reoptimization in the crystal environment, compare favorably with those obtained with other extended basis sets reported in the literature. Received: 20 July 1998/Accepted: 21 August 1998 / Published online: 19 October 1998     

Uniform quality gaussian basis sets for molecular calculations. III. Charge optimized basis sets

Gradient optimized constrained (2s ≠ 2p) and unconstrained (2s ≠ 2p) Gaussian 3G basis sets are reported for the first-row atoms and ions X^O, for Q = ?2 to +4. Analytic equations have been fitted to the logarithm of the exponents as a function of the nuclear charge Z and formal charge Q. Consequently only two parameters Z and Q have to be specified in order to completely define a basis set.     

Long‐range interactions in embedded ionic cluster calculations

The effect of long‐range Coulomb interactions on bulk properties is studied for the ionic solids NaBr and NaCl. The embedded cluster approach in the framework of density functional theory is employed. The Madelung potential is calculated with the Evjen cube summation method. To explore the effects of the long‐range interactions on the electron densities and the Madelung constant, the Evjen cube size is varied from 310 to 19650 point charges for 33 atom clusters. To study the size effect of the quantum region, all‐electron clusters with 33 to 87 atoms, embedded in Evjen cubes of 6859 point charges, are investigated. The results show that for the 81 and 87 atom clusters the Madelung potential is constant from the center up to the second neighbor shell. For the same atoms, in all clusters, the electron density at the nuclei has nearly the same value. The largest difference found for the positive ions was 0.54%, and for the negative ions, 0.14%. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004     

The hydrogen molecule in strong magnetic fields: optimizations of anisotropic Gaussian basis sets

The anisotropic Gaussian basis sets were optimized for the H atom and the hydrogen molecule in strong magnetic fields of 0-1000 a.u. We used five-parameter fit functions to generate anisotropic Gaussian exponents of hydrogenic atomic orbitals. These functions provided errors of energy that were comparable to the independent optimization of all the exponents. The optimal exponents were used to calculate the Hartree-Fock energies of H2 at arbitrary orientations, with respect to the magnetic field. Furthermore, the double-exponential transformation was applied to calculate highly anisotropic Coulomb integrals. Between magnetic field strengths of 1 a.u. and 100 a.u., a molecule in a triplet ground state continuously changed its stable orientation from the perpendicular geometry to the parallel geometry.     

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.     

Cubic-grid Gaussian basis sets for electron scattering calculations IV

Summary An analytical formula has been derived for averaging the differential cross section for electron scattering with respect to isotropic target molecule orientation. It may be applied to any type ofT-matrix element k ^out|T|k ⁱⁿ in which the plane-wave functionsk ^out andk ⁱⁿ are expanded in a set ofs-type Gaussian functions. The formula for averaging was tested against results obtained by Monte-Carlo-type calculations and against experimental data for elastic electron scattering by the H₂ molecule.     

Multiple basis sets in calculations of triples corrections in coupled-cluster theory

Multiple basis sets are used in calculations of perturbational corrections for triples replacements in the framework of single-reference coupled-cluster theory. We investigate a computational procedure, where the triples correction is calculated from a reduced space of virtual orbitals, while the full space is employed for the coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles model. The reduced space is either constructed from a prescribed unitary transformation of the virtual orbitals (for example into natural orbitals) with subsequent truncation, or from a reduced set of atomic basis functions. After the selection of a reduced space of virtual orbitals, the singles and doubles amplitudes obtained from a calculation in the full space are projected onto the reduced space, the remaining set of virtual orbitals is brought into canonical form by diagonalizing the representation of the Fock operator in the reduced space, and the triples corrections are evaluated as usual. The case studies include the determination of the spectroscopic constants of N₂, F₂, and CO, the geometry of O₃, the electric dipole moment of CO, the static dipole polarizability of F⁻, and the Ne⋯Ne interatomic potential. Received: 28 December 1996 / Accepted: 8 April 1997     

Reliability of atomic natural orbital basis sets in calculations involving pseudopotentials

The performance of Atomic Natural Orbital (ANO) basis sets for calculations involving nonempirical core pseudopotentials has been studied by comparing the results for atomic and molecular nitrogen obtained using contracted ANO basis sets with those obtained using both the primitive set and a segmented one. The primitive set has been optimized at the SCF level for atomic N treated as a five-electron pseudo-atom, and consists of 7s and 7p primitive GTOs supplemented by 2d and 1f GTOs optimized at the CI level. From this primitive set three contracted [3s 3p 2d 1f] sets have been obtained. The first one has been derived from the ANOs of the neutral atom, the second has been obtained from an averaged density matrix and the third one is a segmented set. For the atom, the segmented set gives a zero contraction error at the SCF level as it must be in valence-only calculations. The ANO basis sets show some small contraction error at the SCF level but perform better in CI calculations. However, for the diatomic N₂ molecule the ANO basis sets exhibit a rather large contraction error in the calculated SCF energy. A detailed analysis of the origin of this error is reported, which shows that the conventional strategy used to derive ANO basis sets does not work very well when pseudopotentials are involved.     

Possible criterion for the balance of basis sets in quantum-chemical calculations

We propose to characterize the width of a basis set (BS) by the number of basis functions falling within one electron of the considered atomic or molecular systems. It is established that for atoms, this value (the electron function endowment, or EFE) undergoes drastic changes as the atomic number of a periodic system element increases. It is shown that widening the BS through the addition of valence and polarizational functions increases the imbalance of the basis sets of various atoms in terms of EFE. A scheme of construction is proposed and an example of a BS balanced according to the EFE value is given. The properties of LiH and HF molecules are calculated by the density functional UB3LYP method with the use of standard and molecular-optimized (relaxed) BSes with segmented and general contraction of the Gaussian functions. It is established that there are uniform dependences for the error of calculating the properties of both molecules from the EFE. We conclude that the accuracy of calculating the equilibrium distance, ionization energy, electron affinity, atomization energy, dipole moment, and frequency of normal vibration increases steadily as the EFE value of a molecule rises.     

Splicing I: Using mixed basis sets in ab initio calculations

The effect of mixing (or “splicing”) extended and minimal basis sets on molecular properties such as geometries, Mulliken charges, dipoles, and internal rotation barriers was studied for several test molecules. The effect is gauged by comparison with full extended basis set calculations. It is found that splicing improves most properties relative to full minimal basis set calculations, and little accuracy is lost if the splicing is done in a judicious manner.