Analytical gradients of complete active space self-consistent field energies using Cholesky decomposition: Geometry optimization and spin-state energetics of a ruthenium nitrosyl complex

Abstract

We present a formulation of analytical energy gradients at the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) level of theory employing density fitting (DF) techniques to enable efficient geometry optimizations of large systems. As an example, the ground and lowest triplet state geometries of a ruthenium nitrosyl complex are computed at the DF-CASSCF level of theory and compared with structures obtained from density functional theory (DFT) using the B3LYP, BP86, and M06L functionals. The average deviation of all bond lengths compared to the crystal structure is 0.042Å at the DF-CASSCF level of theory, which is slightly larger but still comparable with the deviations obtained by the tested DFT functionals, e.g., 0.032Å with M06L. Specifically, the root-mean-square deviation between the DF-CASSCF and best DFT coordinates, delivered by BP86, is only 0.08Å for S0 and 0.11Å for T1, indicating that the geometries are very similar. While keeping the mean energy gradient errors below 0.25%, the DF technique results in a 13-fold speedup compared to the conventional CASSCF geometry optimization algorithm. Additionally, we assess the singlet-triplet energy vertical and adiabatic differences with multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) using the DF-CASSCF and DFT optimized geometries. It is found that the vertical CASPT2 energies are relatively similar regardless of the geometry employed whereas the adiabatic singlet-triplet gaps are more sensitive to the chosen triplet geometry.