On the performance of density functional theory methods in the prediction of the electric polarizability and hyperpolarizability of ozone

Abstract

We report a study of the performance of density functional theory (DFT) methods in the prediction of electric properties for the ozone molecule. We have used a large, flexible basis set for the calculation of the dipole moment and the dipole (hyper)polarizability with the B1LYP, B3LYP, B3P86, B3PW91, G96PW91 and MPW91PW91 methods. The results are compared to high-level, conventional ab initiomethods. We rely on a rigorous approach in order to evaluate the proximity and similarity of theoretical descriptions obtained via DFT and conventional ab initiomethods. We find that compared to the most accurate ab initio, DFT methods predict reliable dipole polarizabilities and second dipole hyperpolarizabilities for ozone. Agreement is less good for the dipole moment and the first dipole hyperpolarizability. Overall, the performance of the DFT is similar to that of the accurate ab initiomethods.