Rotational energy surface and quasiclassical analysis of the rotational energy level cluster formation in the ground vibrational state of PH3

We report and substantiate a method for constructing the rotational energy surface (RES) of a molecule as a pure classical object. For an arbitrary molecule we start from the potential energy surface rather than from a conventional “effective Hamiltonian”. The method is used for constructing the RES of the PH₃ molecule in its ground vibrational state. We have used an ab initio potential energy surface [D. Wang, Q. Shi, Q.-S. Zhu, J. Chem. Phys. 112 (2000) 9624-9631; S.N. Yurchenko, M. Carvajal, P. Jensen, F. Herregodts, T.R. Huet, Chem. Phys. 290 (2003) 59-67.]. The shape of the RES is shown not to change for J from 0 to 120. The procedure of quasiclassical quantization of the RES was also undertaken, yielding a set of quasiclassical critical values of the angular momentum. The results explain the structure of quantum rotational energy levels obtained by variational calculations [S.N. Yurchenko, W. Thiel, S. Patchkovskii, P. Jensen, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 7 (2005) 573-582].