A Jahn–Teller analysis of K3 and Rb3 in the electronic states 1E′ and 1E″

The potential energy surfaces (PES) of the Jahn–Teller distorted doublet 1²E′ (1B₂/1A₁) ground state and 1²E″ (2B₁/1A₂) excited state of alkali metal trimers (K₃, Rb₃) are studied with three high-level computational chemistry methods whose results are compared: single-reference coupled cluster, equation-of-motion coupled cluster and multi-reference second-order Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory. The doubly degenerate E electronic state interacts with the twofold degenerate vibrational e mode. We use the E ⊗ e Jahn–Teller effect theory to analyze in detail one- and two-dimensional cuts of the PES as a function of the symmetry-adapted internal coordinates Q_s, Q_x and Q_y and we extract the associated Jahn–Teller parameters. Spin-orbit coupling is accounted for by means of the Effective-Core-Potential-LS technique and spin-orbit splitting constants are extracted. We also provide the geometries, the binding energies and tentative vibronic spectra for the 1²E″ ← 1²E′ transitions.