Slater basis functions

The spatial part of each ip], is expanded in terms of the fundamental set of basis functions (Slater- or Gauss-type functions) gm... 

To this pom t, th e basic approxmi alien is th at th e total wave I lnic-tion IS a single Slater determinant and the resultant expression of the molecular orbitals is a linear combination of atomic orbital basis functions (MO-LCAO). In other words, an ah miiio calculation can be initiated once a basis for the LCAO is chosen. Mathematically, any set of functions can be a basis for an ah mitio calculation. However, there are two main things to be considered m the choice of the basis. First one desires to use the most efficient and accurate functions possible, so that the expansion (equation (49) on page 222). will require the few esl possible term s for an accurate representation of a molecular orbital. The second one is the speed of tW O-electron integral calculation. 

Ihe one-electron orbitals are commonly called basis functions and often correspond to he atomic orbitals. We will label the basis functions with the Greek letters n, v, A and a. n the case of Equation (2.144) there are K basis functions and we should therefore xpect to derive a total of K molecular orbitals (although not all of these will necessarily 3e occupied by electrons). The smallest number of basis functions for a molecular system vill be that which can just accommodate all the electrons in the molecule. More sophisti- ated calculations use more basis functions than a minimal set. At the Hartree-Fock limit he energy of the system can be reduced no further by the addition of any more basis unctions however, it may be possible to lower the energy below the Hartree-Fock limit ay using a functional form of the wavefunction that is more extensive than the single Slater determinant. 

Several functional forms have been investigated for the basis functions Given the vast experience of using Gaussian functions in Hartree-Fock theory it will come as no surprise to learn that such functions have also been employed in density functional theory. However, these are not the only possibility Slater type orbitals are also used, as are numerical... 

The Slater exponents partially listed in the table above are used for all the STO-NG basis sets. The exponents for all the atoms with atomic numbers less than and equal to 54 are available from HyperChem basis function. BAS files. 

Minimal basis sets use fixed-size atomic-type orbitals. The STO-3G basis set is a minimal basis set (although it is not the smallest possible basis set). It uses three gaussian primitives per basis function, which accounts for the 3G in its name. STO stands for Slater-type orbitals, and the STO-3G basis set approximates Slater orbitals with gaussian functions. ... 

We must now consider the choice of a basis set. I have already made reference to hydrogenic orbitals and Slater orbitals without any real explanation. I have also hinted at the integrals problem variational calculations almost always involve the calculation of a number of two-electron integrals over the basis functions... 

Exact solutions to the electronic Schrodinger equation are not possible for many-electron atoms, but atomic HF calculations have been done both numerically and within the LCAO model. In approximate work, and for molecular applications, it is desirable to use basis functions that are simple in form. A polyelectron atom is quite different from a one-electron atom because of the phenomenon of shielding", for a particular electron, the other electrons partially screen the effect of the positively charged nucleus. Both Zener (1930) and Slater (1930) used very simple hydrogen-like orbitals of the form... 

In honour of J. C. Slater, we refer to such basis functions as Slater-type orbitals (STOs). Slater orbital exponents ( = (Z — s)/n ) for atoms through neon are given in Table 9.2. 

The first step in reducing the computational problem is to consider only the valence electrons explicitly, the core electrons are accounted for by reducing the nuclear charge or introducing functions to model the combined repulsion due to the nuclei and core electrons. Furthermore, only a minimum basis set (the minimum number of functions necessary for accommodating the electrons in the neutral atom) is used for the valence electrons. Hydrogen thus has one basis function, and all atoms in the second and third rows of the periodic table have four basis functions (one s- and one set of p-orbitals, pj, , Pj, and Pj). The large majority of semi-empirical methods to date use only s- and p-functions, and the basis functions are taken to be Slater type orbitals (see Chapter 5), i.e. exponential functions. 

As mentioned in Chapter 5, one can think of the expansion of an unknown MO in terms of basis functions as describing the MO function in the coordinate system of the basis functions. The multi-determinant wave function (4.1) can similarly be considered as describing the total wave function in a coordinate system of Slater determinants. The basis set determines the size of the one-electron basis (and thus limits the description of the one-electron functions, the MOs), while the number of determinants included determines the size of the many-electron basis (and thus limits the description of electron correlation). 

How are the additional determinants beyond the HF constructed With N electrons and M basis functions, solution of the Roothaan-Hall equations for the RHF case will yield N/2 occupied MOs and M — N/2 unoccupied (virtual) MOs. Except for a minimum basis, there will always be more virtual than occupied MOs. A Slater detemfinant is determined by N/2 spatial MOs multiplied by two spin functions to yield N spinorbitals. By replacing MOs which are occupied in the HF determinant by MOs which are unoccupied, a whole series of determinants may be generated. These can be denoted according to how many occupied HF MOs have been replaced by unoccupied MOs, i.e. Slater determinants which are singly, doubly, triply, quadruply etc. excited relative to the HF determinant, up to a maximum of N excited electrons. These... 

There are two types of basis functions (also called Atomic Orbitals, AO, although in general they are not solutions to an atomic Schrodinger equation) commonly used in electronic structure calculations Slater Type Orbitals (STO) and Gaussian Type Orbitals (GTO). Slater type orbitals have die functional form... 

The variational problem is to minimize the energy of a single Slater determinant by choosing suitable values for the MO coefficients, under the constraint that the MOs remain orthonormal. With cj) being an MO written as a linear combination of the basis functions (atomic orbitals) /, this leads to a set of secular equations, F being the Fock matrix, S the overlap matrix and C containing the MO coefficients (Section 3.5). 

The energy of a wave function containing variational parameters, like an HF (one Slater determinant) or MCSCF (many Slater determinants) wave function. Parameters are typically the MO and state coefficients, but may also be for example basis function exponents. Usually only minima are desired, although in some cases saddle points may also be of interest (excited states). 

If one includes functions with n - / even in (1.1) (i.e. one uses set b) the basis is formally overcomplete. However the error decreases exponentially with the size of the basis [2,16]. Unfortunately for this type ofbasis the evaluation of the integrals is practically as difficult as for Slater type basis functions, such that basis sets of type (b) have not been used in practice. 

Irrespective of whether we use Gaussian functions, Slater type exponentials or numerical sets, certain categories of functions that can help to characterize the quality of a basis set... 

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