Elementary constituents of microdevices: the Ge2H fragment.

Highly correlated ab initio electronic structure theory has been used to systematically investigate the linear (X 2Pi) GeGeH and H-bridged (X 2B1 and A 2A1) GeHGe structures and the isomerization transition state (A 2A') connecting X 2Pi with A 2A1. The equilibrium structures and physical properties have been predicted employing self-consistent field, configuration interaction with single and double excitations, coupled cluster with single and double excitations (CCSD), and CCSD with perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)]. Four correlation-consistent polarized valence-[cc-pVXZ and aug-cc-pVXZ (X=T and Q)] type basis sets were used in the study. For the H-bridged GeHGe isomer, the X 2B1 ground state is predicted to lie only 0.74 [0.95 with zero-point vibrational energy (ZPVE) corrections] kcal mol-1 below the A 2A1 excited state at the CCSD(T) level of theory with the augmented correlation-consistent polarized valence quadruple zeta (aug-cc-pVQZ) basis set. The X 2B1 state of the H-bridged GeHGe isomer lies 8.6 kcal mol-1 below the X 2Pi ground state of the linear GeGeH isomer. The forward isomerization barrier from the linear ground state to the A 2A' transition state is predicted to be 3.7 kcal mol-1. The reverse isomerization barrier between the A 2A1 GeHGe structure and the X 2Pi GeGeH structure is predicted to be 11.6 (10.8 with the ZPVE corrections) kcal mol-1 at the aug-cc-pVQZ CCSD(T) level of theory.