High excitations in coupled-cluster series: vibrational energy levels of ammonia

The ammonia molecule containing large amplitude inversion motion is a revealing system in examining high-order correlation effects on potential energy surfaces. Correlation contributions to the equilibrium and saddle point geometries, inversion barrier height and vibrational energy levels, including inversion splittings, have been investigated. A six-dimensional Taylor-type series expansion of the Born–Oppenheimer potential energy surface, which is scaled to different levels of theory, is used to determine vibrational energy levels and inversion splittings variationally. The electronic energies are calculated by coupled-cluster methods, combining explicitly correlated R12 theory (which incl…