The electronic structure of oxo-Mn(salen): single-reference and multireference approaches

Using single- and multireference approaches we have examined many of the low-lying electronic states of oxo-Mn(salen), several of which have not been explored previously. Large complete-active-space self-consistent-field (CASSCF) computations have been performed in pursuit of an accurate ordering for the lowest several electronic states. Basis set and relativistic effects have also been considered. For the geometry considered, our best results indicate the ground spin state to be a closed-shell singlet, followed by a pair of low-lying triplet states, with additional singlet states and the lowest quintet state lying significantly higher in energy. Hartree-Fock and density functional theory (DFT) results are obtained and are compared to the more robust CASSCF results. The Hartree-Fock results are qualitatively incorrect for the relative energies of the states considered. Popular density functionals such as BP86 and B3LYP are superior to Hartree-Fock for this problem, but they give inconsistent answers regarding the ordering of the lowest singlet and triplet states and they greatly underestimate the singlet-quintet gap. We obtained multiple Hartree-Fock and DFT solutions within a given spin multiplicity, and these solutions have been subjected to wave function stability analysis.