Ab initio CI calculation of the band structure in the A2B1–X2A1 electronic transition of BH2
Ab initio MRD-CI calculations have been carried out to nearly full-CI accuracy for several large AO basis sets (including f functions) for the potential curves of the BH2 molecule in its X2A1 and A2B1 electronic states. A two-dimensional vibrational treatment of the bending modes in this system has been performed employing a variational method which takes account of both Renner–Teller coupling and large-amplitude motion. The resulting structural data agree to within 0.002 Å and 2° of measured bond distance and angles and the computed bending frequencies are found to be in error by less than 30 cm−1; in addition predictions of the as yet unobserved stretching frequencies are also reported for both electronic states. In the best theoretical treatment the v2′′ = 0 → v2′ = 1 transition energy to the linear upper state is calculated to be 4145 cm−1, in excellent agreement with the corresponding value of 4190 cm−1 obtained by extrapolation of the three higher-energy band frequencies actually observed by Herzberg and Johns provided a renumbering of these levels (namely as v2′ = 9, 11, and 13) is undertaken relative to the originally preferred experimental interpretation. It is also pointed out that some of the earlier reported discrepancies between calculation and experiment regarding transition energies in this band system are actually due to a misinterpretation of the definition of the experimental fitting parameter T00 in previous theoretical work.