Electron correlation-consistent basis sets

In order to benchmark the ECP results for Hg, all-electron correlation consistent basis sets were also developed both with and without the inclusion of... 

Balabanov, N.B., Peterson, K.A. SystematicaUy convergent basis sets for transition metals. 1. AU-electron correlation consistent basis sets for the 3d elements Sc-Zn, J. Ghem. Phys. 2005,123,064107. 

Electron correlation studies demand basis sets that are capable of very high accuracy, and the 6-31IG set I used for the examples above is not truly adequate. A number of basis sets have been carefully designed for correlation studies, for example the correlation consistent basis sets of Dunning. These go by the acronyms cc-pVDZ, cc-pVTZ, cc-pVQZ, cc-pV5Z and cc-pV6Z (double, triple, quadruple, quintuple and sextuple-zeta respectively). They include polarization functions by definition, and (for example) the cc-pV6Z set consists of 8. 6p, 4d, 3f, 2g and Ih basis functions. 

We need to look at the convergence as a function of basis set and amount of electron correlation (Figure 4.2). For the former we will use the correlation consistent basis sets of double, triple, quadruple, quintuple and, when possible, sextuple quality (Section 5.4.5), while the sensitivity to electron correlation will be sampled by the HF, MP2 and CCSD(T) methods (Sections 3.2, 4.8 and 4.9). Table 11.1 shows how the geometry changes as a function of basis set at the HF level of theory. 

The quality of quantum-chemical calculations depends not only on the chosen n-electron model but also critically on the flexibility of the one-electron basis set in terms of which the MOs are expanded. Obviously, it is possible to choose basis sets in many different ways. For highly accurate, systematic studies of molecular systems, it becomes important to have a well-defined procedure for generating a sequence of basis sets of increasing flexibility. A popular hierarchy of basis functions are the correlation-consistent basis sets of Dunning and coworkers [15-17], We shall use two varieties of these sets the cc-pVXZ (correlation-consistent polarized-valence X-tuple-zeta) and cc-pCVXZ (correlation-consistent polarized core-valence X-tuple-zeta) basis sets see Table 1.1. 

As can be seen from the table, the number of AOs increases rapidly with the cardinal number X. Thus, with each increment in the cardinal number, a new shell of valence AOs is added to the cc-pVXZ set since the number of AOs added in each step is proportional to X2, the total number (Nbas) of AOs in a correlation-consistent basis set is proportional to X3. The core-valence sets cc-pCVXZ contain additional AOs for the correlation of the core electrons. As we shall see later, the hierarchy of correlation-consistent basis sets provides a very systematic description of molecular electronic systems, enabling us to develop a useful extrapolation technique for molecular energies. 

The Cauchy moments are derived and implemented for the approximate triples model CC3 with the proper N scaling (where N denotes the number of basis functions). The Cauchy moments are calculated for the Ne, Ar, and Kr atoms using the hierarchy of the coupled-cluster models CCS, CC2, CCSD, CC3 and a large correlation-consistent basis sets augmented with diffuse functions. A detailed investigation of the one- and A-electron errors shows that the CC3 results have the accuracy comparable to the experimental results. 

In the next section, we recapitulate the derivation of the Cauchy moment expressions for CC wavefunction models and give the CC3-specific formulas we also outline an efficient implementation of the CCS Cauchy moments. Section 3 contains computational details. In Section 4, we report the Cauchy moments calculated for the Ne, Ar, and Kr gases using the CCS, CC2, CCSD, CCS hierarchy and correlation-consistent basis sets augmented with diffuse functions. In particular, we consider the issues of one- and A-electron convergence and compare with the Cauchy moments obtained from the DOSD approach and other experiments. 

In the present work, correlation consistent basis sets have been developed for the transition metal atoms Y and Hg using small-core quasirelativistic PPs, i.e., the ns and (nA)d valence electrons as well as the outer-core (nA)sp electrons are explicitly included in the calculations. This can greatly reduce the errors due to the PP approximation, and in particular the pseudo-orbitals in the valence region retain some nodal structure. Series of basis sets from double-through quintuple-zeta have been developed and are denoted as cc-pVwZ-PP (correlation consistent polarized valence with pseudopotentials). The methodology used in this work is described in Sec. II, while molecular benchmark calculations on YC, HgH, and Hg2 are given in Sec. III. Lastly, the results are summarized in Sec. IV. 

The concomitant advances in theoretical methodologies and algorithms have also played a vital role in increasing computational capabilities for theoretical thermochemistry. These advances include (1) new methods for accurate treatment of electron correlation in molecules and atoms such as coupled cluster and quadratic configuration interaction methods, (2) new basis sets such as the correlation consistent basis sets, and (3) development of model chemistry ... 

In a Russian study, it was found that good agreement with experimental results could be obtained by adding electron correlation effects and by using correlation-consistent basis sets and additional functions <2003RJ01618>. 

In Table 1, the dissociation energy and some spectroscopic constants of N2 are listed for correlation-consistent basis sets with X<5 and for the ra-electron models Hartree-Fock, full-valence MCSCF, MP2, CCSD, and CCSD(T). A clear (but not necessarily rapid) convergence is observed within the established hierarchies. 

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