New correlation factors for explicitly correlated electronic wave functions.

We have investigated the correlation factors exp(-zetar12), r12 exp(-zetar12), erfc(zetar12), and r12 erfc(zetar12) in place of the linear-r12 term for use in explicitly correlated electronic-structure methods. The accuracy obtained with all of these correlation factors is significantly greater than that obtained with the plain correlation factor r12. Polarization functions that are more diffuse than those of standard basis sets give even better results. The correlation factor exp(-zetar12) is very close to the optimum correlation factor for helium and outperforms the others.