Computational Investigation of the Geometrical and Electronic Structures of VGen-/0 (n = 1-4) Clusters by Density Functional Theory and Multiconfigurational CASSCF/CASPT2 Method.

Density functional theory and the multiconfigurational CASSCF/CASPT2 method have been employed to study the low-lying states of VGen-/0 (n = 1-4) clusters. For VGe-/0 and VGe2-/0 clusters, the relative energies and geometrical structures of the low-lying states are reported at the CASSCF/CASPT2 level. For the VGe3-/0 and VGe4-/0 clusters, the computational results show that due to the large contribution of the Hartree-Fock exact exchange, the hybrid B3LYP, B3PW91, and PBE0 functionals overestimate the energies of the high-spin states as compared to the pure GGA BP86 and PBE functionals and the CASPT2 method. On the basis of the pure GGA BP86 and PBE functionals and the CASSCF/CASPT2 results, the ground states of anionic and neutral clusters are defined, the relative energies of the excited states are computed, and the electron detachment energies of the anionic clusters are evaluated. The computational results are employed to give new assignments for all features in the photoelectron spectra of VGe3- and VGe4- clusters.