Open-shell systems, electron correlation

In this section, we briefly discuss some of the electronic structure methods which have been used in the calculations of the PE functions which are discussed in the following sections. There are variety of ab initio electronic structure methods which can be used for the calculation of the PE surface of the electronic ground state. Most widely used are Hartree-Fock (HF) based methods. In this approach, the electronic wavefunction of a closed-shell system is described by a determinant composed of restricted one-electron spin orbitals. The unrestricted HF (UHF) method can handle also open-shell electronic systems. The limitation of HF based methods is that they do not account for electron correlation effects. For the electronic ground state of closed-shell systems, electron correlation effects can be accounted for relatively easily by second-order Mpller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2). In modern implementations of MP2, linear scaling with the size of the system has been achieved. It is thus possible to treat quite large molecules and clusters at this level of theory. 

From the above it should be clear that UHF wave functions which are spin contaminated (more than a few percent deviation of (S ) from the theoretical value of S S + 1)) have disadvantages. For closed-shell systems an RHF procedure is therefore normally preferred. For open-shell systems, however, the UHF method has been heavily used. It is possible to use an ROHF type wave function for open-shell systems, but this leads to computational procedures which are somewhat more complicated than for the UHF case when electron correlation is introduced. 

P/h can be interpreted as an effective spin density of this open shell system. Similarly to the electron binding exjvession there is no first order contribution in the correlation potential, that is, = 0, so that 5 is correct through second order. However, the second order correction in the electron correction for... 

Apart from the selection of basis set and correlation procedure, an additional consideration arises in open-shell systems because of the presence of one or more unpaired electrons. This leads to treatments that are referred to as spin-restricted (R), spin-unrestricted (U), and spin-projected (P). 

All electron calculations were carried out with the DFT program suite Turbomole (152,153). The clusters were treated as open-shell systems in the unrestricted Kohn-Sham framework. For the calculations we used the Becke-Perdew exchange-correlation functional dubbed BP86 (154,155) and the hybrid B3LYP functional (156,157). For BP86 we invoked the resolution-of-the-iden-tity (RI) approximation as implemented in Turbomole. For all atoms included in our models we employed Ahlrichs valence triple-C TZVP basis set with polarization functions on all atoms (158). If not noted otherwise, initial guess orbitals were obtained by extended Hiickel theory. Local spin analyses were performed with our local Turbomole version, where either Lowdin (131) or Mulliken (132) pseudo-projection operators were employed. Broken-symmetry determinants were obtained with our restrained optimization tool (136). Pictures of molecular structures were created with Pymol (159). 

If a molecule with no-bond homoaromaticity is investigated, the system in question possesses a non-classical structure with an interaction distance typical of a transition state rather than a closed-shell equilibrium structure. One can consider no-bond homoconjugative interactions as a result of extreme bond stretching and the formation of a singlet biradical, i.e. a low-spin open-shell system. Normally such a situation can only be handled by a multi-determinant description, but in the case of a homoaromatic compound the two single electrons interact with adjacent rc-electrons and form together a delocalized electron system, which can be described by a single determinant ab initio method provided sufficient dynamic electron correlation is covered by the method. 

Several empirical corrections are added to the resulting energies in the CBS methods to remove the systematic errors in the calculations (see Table 10). The CBS-Q method contains a two-electron correction term similar in spirit to the higher level correction used in G2 theory, a spin correction term to account for errors resulting from spin contamination in UHF wavefunctions for open-shell systems, and a correction to the sodium atom to account for core-valence correlation effects. The CBS-4 and CBS-q methods also contain a one-electron... 

For the treatment of electron correlation, Cizek uses classical techniques as well as techniques based on mathematical methods of quantum field theory, namely, a coupled-cluster approach. A rapid development and deployment of these methods during the past decade was stimulated by the realization of the importance of size consistency or size extensivity in the studies of reactive chemical processes. Although truly remarkable accuracy and development have been achieved for ground states of closed-shell systems, an extension to quasidegenerate and general open-shell systems is most challenging. Cizek also works on the exploitation of these approaches to study the electronic structure of extended systems (molecular crystals, polymers107). His many interests in-... 

The electronic structure methods are based primarily on two basic approximations (1) Born-Oppenheimer approximation that separates the nuclear motion from the electronic motion, and (2) Independent Particle approximation that allows one to describe the total electronic wavefunction in the form of one electron wavefunc-tions i.e. a Slater determinant [26], Together with electron spin, this is known as the Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation. The HF method can be of three types restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF), unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) and restricted open Hartree-Fock (ROHF). In the RHF method, which is used for the singlet spin system, the same orbital spatial function is used for both electronic spins (a and (3). In the UHF method, electrons with a and (3 spins have different orbital spatial functions. However, this kind of wavefunction treatment yields an error known as spin contamination. In the case of ROHF method, for an open shell system paired electron spins have the same orbital spatial function. One of the shortcomings of the HF method is neglect of explicit electron correlation. Electron correlation is mainly caused by the instantaneous interaction between electrons which is not treated in an explicit way in the HF method. Therefore, several physical phenomena can not be explained using the HF method, for example, the dissociation of molecules. The deficiency of the HF method (RHF) at the dissociation limit of molecules can be partly overcome in the UHF method. However, for a satisfactory result, a method with electron correlation is necessary. 

A somewhat modified MO LCAO scheme, without restriction on the identity of spin orbitals (p and

unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) method and is usually used to treat open-shell systems (free radicals, triplet states, etc.). Electron correlation is partially taken into account in this method, and therfore it can be expected to be more efficient than the RHF method when applied to calculate potential energy surfaces of chemical rearrangements whose intermediate or final stages may involve the formation of free- or bi-radical structures. The potentialities of the UHF method are now under active study in organic reaction calculations. Also, it is successfully coming into use in chemisorption computations (6). 

The Ni atoms are treated as one-electron systems in which the effects of the Ar-like core and the nine 3d electrons are replaced by a modified effective potential (MEP) as suggested by Melius et al./165/ A contracted gaussian basis set is used for Ni, which includes two functions to describe the 4s and one to describe the 4p atomic orbitals. Since a previous study/159/ found the O-Ni spacing and the vibrational frequency we insensitive to correlations in this open-shell system, the authors have adopted the SCF calculation scheme. To check the approximation of treating the Ni atoms as a one-electron system, they performed both the MEP and an all electron SCF calculation for the NisO cluster. They found that the MEP spacing is 0.37 A or 35% smaller than the all-electron value the MEP we value is 90 cm-1 or 24% smaller. Since the 3d... 

Another significant advantage is that DFT methods based on unrestricted determinants (analogously to UHF, Section 3.7) for open-shell systems are not very prone to spin contamination , i.e. (S ), is normally close to S S + 1) (see also Sections 4.4 and 11.5.3). This is basicly a consequence of electron correlation being included in the determinantal wave function ... 

The HF method treats electron-electron interactions at a mean field level, with the Hartree and exchange interactions exactly written. The method can be implemented either in its spin restricted form (RHF), for closed shell systems, or in the unrestricted form (UHF) for open-shell or strongly correlated systems. In the first case, the one-electron orbitals are identical for electrons of both spin directions, while UHF can account for a non-uniform spin density. The one electron orbitals, which are determined in the course of the self-consistent resolution of the HF equations, are expanded on an over-complete basis set of optimized variational functions. 

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