Spectroscopic properties of Ar(x)-Zn and Ar(x)-Ag(+) (x = 1,2) van der Waals complexes

Potential energy curves have been constructed using coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T)) in combination with all-electron and pseudopotential-based multiply augmented correlation consistent basis sets [m-aug-cc-pV(n + d)Z; m = singly, doubly, triply, n = D,T,Q,5]. The effect of basis set superposition error on the spectroscopic properties of Ar-Zn, Ar2-Zn, Ar-Ag(+), and Ar2-Ag(+) van der Waals complexes was examined. The diffuse functions of the doubly and triply augmented basis sets have been constructed using the even-tempered expansion. The a posteriori counterpoise scheme of Boys and Bernardi and its generalized variant by Valiron and Mayer has been utilized to correct for basis set superposition error (BSSE) in the calculated spectroscopic properties for diatomic and triatomic species. It is found that even at the extrapolated complete basis set limit for the energetic properties, the pseudopotential-based calculations still suffer from significant BSSE effects unlike the all-electron basis sets. This indicates that the quality of the approximations used in the design of pseudopotentials could have major impact on a seemingly valence-exclusive effect like BSSE. We confirm the experimentally determined equilibrium internuclear distance (re), binding energy (De), harmonic vibrational frequency (ωe), and C(1)Π ← X(1)Σ transition energy for ArZn and also predict the spectroscopic properties for the low-lying excited states of linear Ar2-Zn (X(1)Σg, (3)Πg, (1)Πg), Ar-Ag(+) (X(1)Σ, (3)Σ, (3)Π, (3)Δ, (1)Σ, (1)Π, (1)Δ), and Ar2-Ag(+) (X(1)Σg, (3)Σg, (3)Πg, (3)Δg, (1)Σg, (1)Πg, (1)Δg) complexes, using the CCSD(T) and MR-CISD + Q methods, to aid in their experimental characterizations.