Low-lying electronic states and Cl-loss photodissociation of the C2H3Cl+ ion studied using multiconfiguration second-order perturbation theory

We studied the 1(2)A' '(X2A' '), 1(2)A' (A2A'), 2(2)A' ' (B2A' '), and 2(2)A' (C2A') states of the C2H3Cl+ ion using the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and multiconfiguration second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) methods. For the four ionic states, we calculated the equilibrium geometries, adiabatic (T0) and vertical (Tv) excitation energies, and relative energies (Tv') at the geometry of the molecule at the CASPT2 level and the Cl-loss dissociation potential energy curves (PECs) at the CASPT2//CASSCF level. The computed oscillator strength f value for the X2A' ' <-- A2A' transition is very small, which is in line with the experimental fact that the A state has a long lifetime. The CASPT2 geometry and T0 value for the A2A' state are in good agreement with experiment. The CASPT2 Tv' values for the A2A', B2A' ', and C2A' states are in good agreement with experiment. The Cl-loss PEC calculations predict that the X2A' ', A2A', and C2A' states correlate to C2H3+ (XA1) and the BA' ' state to C2H3+ (1A' ') (the B2A' ' and C2A' PECs cross at R(C-Cl) approximately 2.24 A). Our calculations indicate that at 357 nm the X2A' ' state can undergo a transition to B2A' ' followed by a predissociation of B2A' ' by the repulsive C2A' state (via the B/C crossing), leading to C2H3+ (X1A1), and therefore confirm the experimentally proposed pathway for the photodissociation of X2A' ' at 357 nm. Our CASPT2 D0 calculations support the experimental fact that the X state does not undergo dissociation in the visible spectral region and imply that a direct dissociation of the A state to C2H3+ (X1A1) is energetically feasible.