Highly accurate ab initio calculations with specially designed basis sets are reported for Li4. The molecule
emerges as a particularly soft system, with a very anisotropic dipole polarizability and a very large second
dipole hyperpolarizability. An extensive investigation of basis set and electron correlation effects leads to
values of ᾱ = 387.01 and Δα = 354.60 e2a0
2Eh
-1. The mean hyperpolarizability is γ̄ = 2394 × 103 e4a0
4Eh
-3.
The computational aspects of the present effort are discussed in view of the extension of quantumchemical
studies to large lithium clusters. Our values for the mean dipole polarizability are systematically higher than
the recently reported experimental static value (326.6 e2a0
2Eh
-1) of this important quantity [Benichou et al.
Phys. Rev. A
1999, 59, R1].