ABINITIO CALCULATION OF VIBRATIONAL DIPOLE-MOMENT MATRIX-ELEMENTS .1. METHODS OF CALCULATION AND DIATOMIC TEST SYSTEMS

This paper is the first part of a series devoted to the ab initio calculation of some vibrational properties helpful in the interpretation of high resolution spectroscopy, atmospherical and astrophysical data. An ab initio method of calculation of the vibrational transition energies and dipole moment matrix elements is described and analyzed. The main features of this method are the resolution of both electronic and vibrational problems by analytical variational techniques and the representation of the potential energy and dipole moment hypersurfaces as Taylor's series expansions in normal coordinates up to the fourth order. The dipole moment matrix elements are then evaluated by simple analytical formulae. In this first paper, some of the approximations inherent to the methodology are systematically analyzed on the basis of results obtained for diatomic molecules (BeH, HF, NH and NO) with a comparison to experimental and other theoretical results found in the literature. The dependence on the results of the effects of electrical and mechanical anharmonicities, electron correlation and basis set dependencies are investigated. The applicability of the method to small polyatomic systems is discussed in the second paper of this series, on the basis of test calculations on the water molecule.