Broken orbital symmetry and the description of valence hole states in the tetrahedral [CrO₄]²⁻ anion

Abstract

The localization of ligand-based valence holes in the tetrahedral complex ion [CrO₄]²⁻ in a crystalline environment is studied by SCF calculations on the hole states, with progressively less restrictions on the spatial symmetry of the molecular orbitals. The final wavefunctions are obtained by constructing, from the symmetry broken SCF solutions, wavefunctions that exhibit again the proper transformation properties under the operations of T _d . The crystal environment of the [CrO₄]²⁻ anion is represented by a point charge model. In contrast with the situation for core hole states, the projection afterwards into T _d symmetry is important. The final ionization energies, which are obtained from projected C _3v adapted SCF solutions, are reduced considerably (≅3 eV) with respect to the T _d ΔSCF results, but the ordering of the states has not changed essentially. The calculated ionization energies compare favourably with results of XPS experiments on Na₂CrO₄. The evaluation of the energies of projected symmetry broken SCF solutions requires the calculation of hamiltonian matrix elements between determinantal wavefunctions built from mutually non-orthogonal orbital sets. An efficient method for the calculation of such matrix elements is presented.