Computational vibrational spectroscopy of H2 aggregates: Quantifying the role of three-body interactions

PHYS 49

Robert J. Hinde, rhinde@utk.edu, Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996
In the cryogenic low-density liquid and solid phases of H2 and D2, the H2 and D2 molecules retain good rotational and vibrational quantum numbers that characterize their internal degrees of freedom. High-resolution infrared and Raman spectroscopic experiments provide extremely sensitive probes of these degrees of freedom. We present here fully-first-principles calculations of the infrared and Raman spectra of liquid and solid H2 and D2, calculations that employ a high-quality six-dimensional coupled-cluster H2-H2 potential energy surface and quantum Monte Carlo treatments of the single-molecule translational degrees of freedom. The computed spectra agree very well with experimental results once we include three-body interactions among the molecules, interactions which we also compute using coupled-cluster quantum chemical methods. We predict the vibrational spectra of liquid and solid H2 at several temperatures and densities to provide a framework for interpreting recent experiments designed to search for superfluid behavior in small H2 droplets. We also present preliminary calculations of the spectra of mixed H2/D2 solids that show how positional disorder affects the spectral line shapes in these systems.
 

Computational Spectroscopy
1:20 PM-5:20 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 342, Oral

Division of Physical Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008