The Role of High Excitations in Constructing Sub-spectroscopic Accuracy Intermolecular Potential of He-HCN: Critically Examined by the High-Resolution Spectra with Resonance States

Abstract

Interpreting high-resolution rovibrational spectra of weakly bound complexes commonly requires spectroscopic accuracy (<1 cm −1) potential energy surfaces (PES). Constructing high-accuracy ab initio PES relies on the high-level electronic structure approaches and the accurate physical models to represent the potentials. The coupled cluster approaches including single and double excitations with a perturbational estimate of triple excitations (CCSD(T)) have been termed the "gold standard" of electronic structure theory, and widely used in generating intermolecular interaction energies for most van der Waals complexes. However, for HCN-He complex, the observed millimeter-wave spectroscopy with high-excited resonance states has not been assigned and interpreted even on the ab initio PES computed at CCSD(T) level of theory with the complete basis set (CBS) limit. In this work, an effective three-dimensional ab initio PES for HCN-He, which explicitly incorporates dependence on the Q 1 (C−H) normal-mode coordinate of the HCN monomer has been calculated at the CCSD(T)/CBS level. The post-CCSD(T) interaction energy has been examined and included in our PES. Analytic two-dimensional PESs are obtained by least-squares fitting vibrationally averaged interaction energies for v 1 (C−H)=0, and 1 to the Morse/Long-Range potential function form with root-mean-square deviations (RMSD) smaller than 0.011 cm −1. The role and significance of the post-CCSD(T) interaction energy contribution are clearly illustrated by comparison with the predicted rovibrational energy levels. With or without post-CCSD(T) corrections, the value of dissociation limit (D 0) is 8.919 or 9.403 cm −1 , respectively. The predicted millimeter-wave transitions and intensities from the PES with post-CCSD(T) excitation corrections are in good agreement with the available experimental data with RMS discrepancy of 0.072 cm −1. Moreover, the infrared spectrum for HCN-He complex is predicted for the first time. These results will serve as a good starting point and provide reliable guidance for future infrared studies of HCN doped in (He) n clusters.