Electron correlation and relativistic effects in the coinage metal compounds. II. Heteronuclear dimers: CuAg, CuAu, and AgAu

Abstract

Electric properties of heteronuclear dimers of the coinage metals are calculated at the level of the CCSD(T) approximation applied to 38 electrons of the valence and next-to-valence atomic shells. The relativistic effects are accounted for by using the scalar approximation to the Pauli hamiltonian. Both the pure relativistic and mixed relativistic-correlation contributions to energies and electric properties are computed. All calculations have been carried out by using the recently developed first-order polarized basis sets of the coinage metal atoms. In the non-relativistic approximation all studied dimers show only a moderate degree of polarity; the non-relativistic CuAg turns out to be the most polar dimer with the Cu(−)Ag(+) polarity. The relativistic effects considerably reduce the negative value of the CuAg dipole moment, change the sign of the CuAu dipole moment, and make the AgAu molecule the most polar species in the series. Simultaneously, the parallel component of the dipole polarizability shows only a small relativistic contraction. The calculated quasirelativistic interaction potentials have a correct behavior in the vicinity of their minima and give the Re and ωe values in complete agreement with experiment. Much less satisfactory are the dissociation energy data which seem to suffer from the single reference configuration approximation.