August 10, 2009 / Vol. 7, No. 8 / CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS 663
MRCI potential energy curves and analytical potential
energy functions for the X
2
Σ
+
and
2
Π states of BO molecule
Xinqiang Wang (
###
rrr
), Chuanlu Yang (
DDD
´´´
)
∗
, Tao Su (
777
),
Fengjuan Bai (
xxx
ÂÂÂ
ïïï
), and Meishan Wang (
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)
Department of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
∗
E-mail: yangchuanlu@263.net
Received December 1, 2008
The potential energy curves (PECs) of BO molecule, including Σ
+
and Π symmetries with doublet spin
multiplicities, are obtained employing multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI) method and Dun-
ning’s correlation consistent basis sets. The analytical potential energy functions (APEFs) are fitted using
the Murrell-Sorbie (MS) function and the least square method. Based on the PECs, the spectroscopic
constants of the states have been determined and compared with the theoretical and experimental results
available to affirm the accuracy and liability of the calculations. The root-mean-square (RMS) errors be-
tween the fitted results and the ab initio values are too little in comparison with the chemical accuracy
(349.755 cm
−1
). It is shown that the present APEFs are accurate and can display the interaction between
the atoms well. The present APEFs can be used to construct more complicated APEF or do some dynamic
investigations.
OCIS codes: 020.0020, 300.6390.
doi: 10.3788/COL20090708.0663.
Boron clusters and boron-rich materials are very im-
portant species and have been widely used in industry
and technology, including thermally and chemically sta-
ble insulators and high modulus boron-fiber composites.
Currently, the studies of this system are very active in
both experiment and theory. Langhoff et al.
[1]
reported
the spectroscopic par ameters of B
2
molecule with multi-
reference configuration interaction (MRCI) method
[2,3]
.
Yang et al. have performed investigations for the po-
tential energy curves (PECs) and spectroscopic proper-
ties of B
+
2
ion at the quadratic single and double exc ita-
tion configuration interaction (QCISD) level, and fitted
the analytical potential energy functions (APEFs) with
least square method
[4]
. They also studied the geometri-
cal and electronic properties of B
+[5]
3
and B
+[6]
4
clusters.
Very r e c e ntly, the ground and low-lying excited states of
B
++
2
have been studied by Zhang et al. employing MRCI
method
[7]
. The spectroscopic properties and APEFs o f
four metastable sta tes have been reported in their work.
The determination of accurate data fo r bond disso-
ciation energies as well as spectroscopic properties is
very important for the interpretation of many spectro-
scopic and chemical phenomena. The tasks considering
the chemical bonding in elemental boron alloy clusters
on this system have also been completed over the past
few ye ars
[8−9]
. Niu et al. studied some ions of boron
and boron-rich clusters with the Becke 3-parameter
(exchange), Lee, Yang, and Parr (correlation; density
functional theory) (B3LYP) method and Moller-Plesset
(MP
n
) method with the basis sets (10s, 5p, 1d/3s, 2p,
1d). In 2004, ab initio methods with 6-311G* and cc-
pVTZ basis sets have been used to c alculate the equilib-
rium geometries and vibrational properties of nine elec-
tronical states of MgB
2
molecule by Yang et al.
[11]
. They
distinguished the ground state from the
1
A
1
and
3
B
1
states successfully and gave a preferred dissociation chan-
nel in their work.
Boron monoxide is the simplest boron oxide and has
attracted persistent interest over the past four decades,
primarily due to their roles in the combustion of boron
and bo ranes. In 1981, Nemukhin et al.
[12]
calculated
the ground state and some low-lying excited electroni-
cal states (
2,4
Σ,
2,4
Π, and
2,4
∆) of BO molecule by using
the complete active space self-consistent-field (CASSCF)
method in conjunction with the basis s e ts of contracted
Gaussian-type orbitals (CGTOs). PECs and some spec-
troscopic constants of these states were reported in their
work. However, limited by the c alculation level, the
sp e ctroscopic parameters deviated from the expe rimen-
tal data significantly. Taking the ground state as an ex-
ample, the percentage error of the dissociation energy
D
e
was larger than 4.5 % and the difference for the har -
monic frequency ω
e
was 23 cm
−1
compared with the
exp erimental value. In 2001, the theoretical study of
the ground state of BO molecule was implemented by
Papakondylis et al. using coupled cluster calculations
(CCSD(T)) method in conjunction with a series of ba-
sis sets
[13]
. As we all know, the APEFs are an effective
way to research the spectrosc opic properties of diatomic
molecules
[14,15]
. However, bo th Nemukhin et al.
[12]
and
Papakondylis et al.
[13]
only paid attention to the spec-
troscopic constants, and the APEFs of the excited states
were not considered in their studies.
In this letter, valence internally contracted MRCI in-
cluding those configuration state functions (CSFs) that
contribute mo st sig nificantly to the correla tio n energy, is
employed in our calculation to obtain PECs of the ground
state X
2
Σ
+
and one excited state
2
Π. The MRCI calcula-
tions are prece ded by the CASSCF calculations, in which
all valence molecular orbitals are optimized and it is
1671-7694/2009/080663-04
c
2009 Chinese Optics Letters