Uniform molecular analysis using femtosecond laser mass spectrometry

The potential of femtosecond laser time-of-flight mass spectrometry (FLMS) for uniform quantitative analysis of molecules has been investigated. Various samples of molecular gases and vapours have been studied, using ultra-fast ( approximately 50 fs) laser pulses with very high intensity (up to 1.6 x 10(16) Wcm(-2)) for non-resonant multiphoton ionisation/tunnel ionisation. Some of these molecules have high ionisation potentials, requiring up to ten photons for non-resonant ionisation. The relative sensitivity factors (RSF) have been determined as a function of the laser intensity and it has been demonstrated that for molecules with very different masses and ionisation potentials, uniform ionisation has been achieved at the highest laser intensities. Quantitative laser mass spectrometry of molecules is therefore a distinct possibility. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved uncoupled Hartree-Fock perturbation theory

Various uncoupling schemes used in the first-order Hartree-Fock perturbation theory are compared. The analysis and extraction of the most important terms in the coupled Hartree-Fock perturbation scheme leads to a definition of the new functional for the determination of the first-order perturbed orbitals. This new functional represents an alternative uncoupling scheme for the first-order Hartree-Fock perturbation theory. Some special cases of real and pure imaginary perturbations and also the connections with previously proposed uncoupling schemes are discussed.

The uncoupling procedure proposed in this paper is illustrated by electric dipole polarizability calculations for some Be- and Ne-like atomic systems. The results obtained are almost as good as those calculated by using coupled Hartree-Fock perturbation theory.     

Nuclear magnetic resonance parameters for methane molecule trapped in clathrate hydrates

The calculations of the nuclear shielding and spin-spin coupling constants were carried out for two models of clathrate hydrates, 5(12) and 5(12)6(8), using the density functional theory three-parameter Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr method with the basis set aug-cc-pVDZ (optimization) and HuzIII-su3 (NMR parameters). Particular attention has been devoted to evaluate the influence of a geometrical arrangement, the effect of long-range interactions on the NMR shielding of methane molecule, and to predict whether (13)C and (1)H chemical shifts can distinguish between guests in two clathrate hydrates cages. The correlation of the changes in the (17)O shielding constants depend strongly on the hydrogen-bonding topology. The intermolecular hydrogen-bond transmitted (1h)J(OH) spin-spin coupling constants are substantial. The increase of their values is connected with the elongation of the intramolecular O-H bond and the shortening of the intermolecular O···H distance. These data suggests that hydrogen bonds between double donor-single acceptor (DDA)-type water molecules acting as a proton acceptor from single donor-double acceptor (DAA)-type water molecules are stronger than ones formed by DAA-type water molecules acting as an acceptor for a DDA water proton. These state-of-the-art calculations confirmed the earlier experimental findings of the cage-dependency of (13)C chemical shift of methane.     

Polarized basis sets for accurate calculations of static and dynamic electric properties of molecules

We report on the development and testing of large polarized basis sets (LPolX, where X is the element symbol) for accurate calculations of linear and nonlinear electric properties of molecules. The method used to generate LPolX sets is based on our studies of the analytic dependence of Gaussian functions on external time‐independent and time‐dependent electric fields. At variance with the earlier investigations of small, highly compact (ZPolX) basis sets for moderately accurate calculations of electric properties of large molecules, the present goal is to obtain basis sets that are nearly saturated with respect to the selected class of electric properties and can be used for accurate studies of interaction‐induced properties. This saturation makes the LPolX sets also useful in calculations of optical properties for chiral molecules. In this article, the LPolX sets are generated for X = H, C, N, O, and F, and examined in calculations of linear and nonlinear electric properties of four standard test systems: HF, N₂, CO, and HCN. The study of the performance of LPolX basis sets has been carried out at different levels of approximation ranging from the SCF HF method to highly correlated CCSD(T) approach. The results obtained in this study compare favorably with accurate reference data and show a high level of saturation of LPolX basis sets with respect to the polarization effect due to external electric fields. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Finite-field many-body perturbation theory. Calculations of the dipole polarizability of the fluoride ion using electric-field-variant gaussian-type orbitals

The dipole polarizability of the fluoride ion, F^–, is calculated using finite-field many-body perturbation theory. The use of electric-field-variant basis sets in such calculations is investigated. Scaling of the zero-order Hamiltonian and the formation of Padé approximants are considered. Empirical and theoretical estimates of the polarizability of F^– are compared.Science Research Council Advanced Fellow.     

Vibronic absorption spectrum of the ethylene dimer

Vibronic coupling theory is used to construct the vibronic absorption spectrum of the ethylene dimer. It is shown that in this case an extended four-parameter form of the vibronic Hamiltonian should be considered. In addition to the commonly used three vibronic parameters, the difference between the ground and excited state force constants of the monomer is taken into account. Numerical calculations were performed for the dimer geometry resembling that of norbornadiene. Some comments on the interpretation of the absorption spectrum of norbornadiene are made.     

Ab initio study of the ground and first excited state of LiAr

The intermolecular potentials for the X ²σ and A²Π states of Li… Ar were studied by a variety of multiconfiguration, single-configuration, and perturbation methods (CASPT 2). The A ²Π excited state was calculated to have a well depth of 811 cm^?1 at an internuclear separation of 2.59 Å, in excellent agreement with the 810 cm^?1 derived from experimental data. A smaller well of 77 cm^?1 was found for the X ²σ ground state at an intermolecular separation of 4.8 Å. These results are in better agreement with experimental results than were the previously reported pseudopotential calculations. The comparison of CI calculation with the CAPST 2 results shows that the latter is able to give good results for interacting metal–rare gas systems. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Finite-field many-body perturbation theory II. SD-MBPT study of the nuclear charge dependence of the electron correlation contribution to the dipole polarizability of 10-electron atomic systems

The finite-field many-body perturbation theory limited to intermediate states involving single and double substitutions in the reference HF determinant is applied to the calculation of dipole polarizabilities of 10-electron atomic systems. The nuclear charge dependence of the convergence of the SD-MBPT series for correlation corrections to the dipole polarizability is investigated. It is concluded that the fourth-order SD-MBPT scheme is quite appropriate for neutral and positively charged species. For negatively charged systems the convergence of the SD-MBPT series becomes much poorer and including higher-order substitutions may be necessary. The role of the renormalization contributions to the SD-CI polarizability results is also considered. It follows that the corresponding data need to be corrected for the erratic treatment of unlinked clusters. The size inconsistency effects make quite important contributions to the SD-CI values of the correlation corrections to dipole polarizabilities.