Slater-type orbital approximation

For systems involving more particles (more electrons and more nuclear protons and neutrons), the number of variables and other factors immediately exceeds any ability to be calculated precisely. A solution is found, however, in a method that uses an approximation of the orbital description, known as a Slater-type orbital approximation, rather than a precise mathematical description. A third-level Gaussian treatment of the Slater-type orbitals, or STO-3G... 

STO-3G Slater-type orbital approximated by 3 Gaussian functions for each AO. A minimal basis set. 

The application of density functional theory to isolated, organic molecules is still in relative infancy compared with the use of Hartree-Fock methods. There continues to be a steady stream of publications designed to assess the performance of the various approaches to DFT. As we have discussed there is a plethora of ways in which density functional theory can be implemented with different functional forms for the basis set (Gaussians, Slater type orbitals, or numerical), different expressions for the exchange and correlation contributions within the local density approximation, different expressions for the gradient corrections and different ways to solve the Kohn-Sham equations to achieve self-consistency. This contrasts with the situation for Hartree-Fock calculations, wlrich mostly use one of a series of tried and tested Gaussian basis sets and where there is a substantial body of literature to help choose the most appropriate method for incorporating post-Hartree-Fock methods, should that be desired. 

The Slater-type orbitals are a family of functions that give us an economical way of approximating various atomic orbitals (which, for atoms other than hydrogen, we don t know anyway) in a single relatively simple form. For the general case, STOs are written... 

In quantum ehemistry it is quite eommon to use eombinations of more familiar and easy-to-handle "basis funetions" to approximate atomie orbitals. Two eommon types of basis funetions are the Slater type orbitals (STO s) and gaussian type orbitals (GTO s). STO s have the normalized form ... 

FIGURE 10.1 Approximating a Slater-type orbital with several Gaussian-type orbitals. 

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. ... 

The MNDO, AMI and PM3 methods are parameterizations of the NDDO model, where the parameterization is in terms of atomic variables, i.e. referring only to the nature of a single atom. MNDO, AMI and PM3 are derived from the same basic approximations (NDDO), and differ only in the way the core-core repulsion is treated, and how the parameters are assigned. Each method considers only the valence s- and p-functions, which are taken as Slater type orbitals with corresponding exponents, (s and... 

We have just explained that the wave equation for the helium atom cannot be solved exacdy because of the term involving l/r12. If the repulsion between two electrons prevents a wave equation from being solved, it should be clear that when there are more than two electrons the situation is worse. If there are three electrons present (as in the lithium atom) there will be repulsion terms involving l/r12, l/r13, and l/r23. Although there are a number of types of calculations that can be performed (particularly the self-consistent field calculations), they will not be described here. Fortunately, for some situations, it is not necessary to have an exact wave function that is obtained from the exact solution of a wave equation. In many cases, an approximate wave function is sufficient. The most commonly used approximate wave functions for one electron are those given by J. C. Slater, and they are known as Slater wave functions or Slater-type orbitals (usually referred to as STO orbitals). 

Each CGTO can be considered as an approximation to a single Slater-type orbital (STO) with effective nuclear charge f (zeta). The composition of the basis set can therefore be described in terms of the number of such effective zeta values (or STOs) for each electron. A double-zeta (DZ) basis includes twice as many effective STOs per electron as a single-zeta minimal basis (MB) set, a triple-zeta (TZ) basis three times as many, and so forth. A popular choice, of so-called split-valence type, is to describe core electrons with a minimal set and valence electrons with a more flexible DZ (or higher) set. 

Quantum mechanics (QM) can be further divided into ab initio and semiempiri-cal methods. The ab initio approach uses the Schrodinger equation as the starting point with post-perturbation calculation to solve electron correlation. Various approximations are made that the wave function can be described by some functional form. The functions used most often are a linear combination of Slater-type orbitals (STO), exp (-ax), or Gaussian-type orbitals (GTO), exp (-ax2). In general, ab initio calculations are iterative procedures based on self-consistent field (SCF) methods. Self-consistency is achieved by a procedure in which a set of orbitals is assumed and the electron-electron repulsion is calculated. This energy is then used to calculate a new set of orbitals, and these in turn are used to calculate a new repulsion energy. The process is continued until convergence occurs and self-consistency is achieved. 

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