Binding energies of germanium clusters, Ge-n (n=2-5)

Gaussian-2 (G2) theory for third-row non-transition elements is used to calculate energies of germanium clusters, Ge-n (n = 2-5). The G2 energies are used to derive accurate binding energies for the clusters. The results for Ge-2 and Ge-3 are in agreement with experiment while there is some disagreement for Ge-4 and Ge-5. The binding energies are also calculated using the B3LYP density functional method with the 6-311 + G(3df,2p) basis set and compared with the G2 results and experiment.