Molecular Spectroscopy by Ab Initio Methods

Abstract

Due to recent advances in methods and computers, the accuracy of ab calculations has reached a point where these methods can be used to provide accurate spectroscopic constants for small molecules; this will be illustrated with several examples. We will show how ab initio calculations where used to identify the Hermann infrared system in N2 and two band systems in CO. The identification of all three of these band systems relied on very accurate calculations of quintet states. The analysis of the infrared spectra of cool stars requires knowledge of the intensity of vibrational transitions in SiO for high nu and J levels. While experiment can supply very accurate dipole moments for nu = 0 to 3, this is insufficient to construct a global dipole moment function. We show how theory, combined by the experiment, can be used to generate the line intensities up to nu = 40 and J = 250. The spectroscopy of transition metal containing systems is very difficult for both theory and experiment. We will discuss the identification of the ground state of Ti2 and the spectroscopy of AlCu as examples of how theory can contribute to the understanding of these complex systems.