Non-Born–Oppenheimer calculations of the polarizability of LiH in a basis of explicitly correlated Gaussian functions

Gaussians for Electronic and Rovibrational Quantum Dynamics

The assumptions underpinning the adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation are broken for molecules interacting with attosecond laser pulses, which generate complicated coupled electronic-nuclear wave packets that generally will have components of electronic and dissociation continua as well as bound-state contributions. The conceptually most straightforward way to overcome this challenge is to treat the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom on equal quantum-mechanical footing by not invoking the BO approximation at all. Explicitly correlated Gaussian (ECG) basis functions have proved successful for non-BO calculations of stationary molecular states and energies, reproducing rovibrational absorption spectra with very high accuracy. In this Article, we present a proof-of-principle study of the ability of fully flexible ECGs (FFECGs) to capture the intricate electronic and rovibrational dynamics generated by short, high-intensity laser pulses. By fitting linear combinations of FFECGs to accurate wave function histories obtained on a large real-space grid for a regularized 2D model of the hydrogen atom and for the 2D Morse potential, we demonstrate that FFECGs provide a very compact description of laser-driven electronic and rovibrational dynamics.

Two-photon absorption of the spatially confined LiH molecule

In the present contribution we study the influence of spatial restriction on the two-photon dipole transitions between the X¹Σ⁺ and A¹Σ⁺ states of lithium hydride. The bond-length dependence of the two-photon absorption strength is also analyzed for the first time in the literature. The highly accurate multiconfiguration self-consistent field (MCSCF) method and response theory are used to characterize the electronic structure of the studied molecule. In order to render the effect of orbital compression we apply a two-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential, mimicking the topology of cylindrical confining environments (e.g. carbon nanotubes, quantum wires). Among others, the obtained results provide evidence that at large internuclear distances the TPA response of lithium hydride may be significantly enhanced and this effect is much more pronounced upon embedding of the LiH molecule in an external confining potential. To understand the origin of the observed variation in the two-photon absorption response a two-level approximation is employed.

Darwin and mass-velocity relativistic corrections in non-Born-Oppenheimer variational calculations

The Pauli approach to account for the mass-velocity and Darwin relativistic corrections has been applied to the formalism for quantum mechanical molecular calculations that does not assume the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation regarding separability of the electronic and nuclear motions in molecular systems. The corrections are determined using the first order perturbation theory and are derived for the non-BO wave function of a diatomic system expressed in terms of explicitly correlated Gaussian functions with premultipliers in the form of even powers of the internuclear distance. As a numerical example we used calculations of the transition energies for pure vibrational states of the HD(+) ion.

An accurate non-Born–Oppenheimer calculation of the first purely vibrational transition in LiH molecule

In this work we study the ground and the first vibrationally excited states of LiH molecule. We performed an extensive nonrelativistic variational calculations of the two states without using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The results are analyzed and compared with the data extracted from recent experiments. The 0<--1 transition energy obtained in the calculations converged to a value which is less than a wave number above the transition energy estimated from the available experimental data concerning the LiH rovibrational transitions. We discuss the remaining discrepancy and the procedure used to determine the "experimental" transition frequencies.

Non-Born–Oppenheimer calculations of the pure vibrational spectrum of HeH+

Very accurate calculations of the pure vibrational spectrum of the HeH(+) ion are reported. The method used does not assume the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, and the motion of both the electrons and the nuclei are treated on equal footing. In such an approach the vibrational motion cannot be decoupled from the motion of electrons, and thus the pure vibrational states are calculated as the states of the system with zero total angular momentum. The wave functions of the states are expanded in terms of explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions multipled by even powers of the internuclear distance. The calculations yielded twelve bound states and corresponding eleven transition energies. Those are compared with the pure vibrational transition energies extracted from the experimental rovibrational spectrum.

Non-Born–Oppenheimer molecular structure and one-particle densities for H2D+

We show that the nonadiabatic (non-Born-Oppenheimer) ground state of a three-nuclei system can be effectively calculated with the use of an explicitly correlated Gaussian basis set with floating centers. Sample calculations performed for the H2D+ system with various basis set sizes show good convergence with respect to both the total energy and the expectation values of the internuclear distances (molecular geometry), the distances between the nuclei and the electrons, and between the electrons. We also provide a derivation of the formulas for one-particle density calculations and some density plots showing the spatial distribution of the H2D+ nuclear and electronic densities.

Accurate quantum-chemical prediction of enthalpies of formation of small molecules in the gas phase

The coupled-cluster approach, including single and double excitations and perturbative corrections for triple excitations, is capable of predicting molecular electronic energies and enthalpies of formation of small molecules in the gas phase with very high accuracy (specifically, with error bars less than 5 kJmol-1), provided that the electronic wavefunction is dominated by the Hartree-Fock configuration. This capability is illustrated by calculations on molecules containing O-H and O-F bonds, namely OH, FO, H2O, HOF, and F2O. To achieve this very high accuracy, it is imperative to account for electron-correlation effects in a quantitative manner, either by using explicitly correlated two-particle basis functions (R12 functions) or by extrapolating to the limit of a complete basis. Besides taking into account harmonic zero-point vibrational energies, it is also necessary to account for anharmonic corrections to the zero-point vibrational energies, to include the core orbitals into the coupled-cluster calculations, and to account for spin-orbit corrections and scalar relativistic effects. These additional corrections constitute small but significant contributions in the range of 1-4 kJmol-1 to the enthalpies of formation of the aforementioned molecules. The highly accurate coupled-cluster results, obtained by employing R12 functions and by including various corrections, are compared with standard Kohn-Sham density-functional calculations as well as with the Gaussian-2 and complete-basis-set model chemistries.

Non-Born-Oppenheimer isotope effects on the polarizabilities of H2

We present non-Born-Oppenheimer quantum-mechanical calculations of the behavior of isolated molecules of the H2 isotopomer series in static electric fields. Some conceptual aspects of such calculations are discussed. The values for polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities of the H2 isotopomers which we present are the first ever fully nonadiabatic calculated values of these properties.