Ab initio potential energy surface and internal torsional-wagging states of hydroxylamine

The two-dimensional potential energy surface describing the interaction of the large-amplitude torsional and wagging motions in hydroxylamine has been determined from ab initio calculations. This surface has been sampled by a large set of grid points from a two-dimensional configuration space spanned by the torsional and wagging coordinates. At each grid point, the geometry optimization has been performed using the second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory with the basis set 6-311 + G(2d, p). At the optimized geometry, the single-point calculation of the electronic energy has been carried out using a larger basis set 6-311 + G(3df, 2p). This method was verified to yield the results comparable to those obtained by a direct optimization of the geometry with the basis set 6-311 + G(3df, 2p) which had been used by A. Chung-Phillips and K. A. Jebber (1995. J. Chem. Phys. 102, 7080-7087) to calculate the energies of only three points in the potential energy surface of hydroxylamine. The trans and cis local minima have been found on the determined potential energy surface. The localization features of the torsional-wagging states have been studied by solving the two-dimensional Schrodinger equation for the coupled torsional and wagging motions. (C) 1997 Academic Press.