Efficient floating diffuse functions for accurate characterization of the surface-bound excess electrons in water cluster anions

In this work, the effect of diffuse function types (atom-centered diffuse functions versus floating functions and s-type versus p-type diffuse functions) on the structures and properties of three representative water cluster anions featuring a surface-bound excess electron is studied and we find that an effective combination of such two kinds of diffuse functions can not only reduce the computational cost but also, most importantly, considerably improve the accuracy of results and even avoid incorrect predictions of spectra and the EE shape. Our results indicate that (a) simple augmentation of atom-centered diffuse functions is beneficial for the vertical detachment energy convergence, but it leads to very poor descriptions for the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) distributions of the water cluster anions featuring a surface-bound excess electron and thus a significant ultraviolet spectrum redshift; (b) the ghost-atom-based floating diffuse functions can not only contribute to accurate electronic calculations of the ground state but also avoid poor and even incorrect descriptions of the SOMO and the LUMO induced by excessive augmentation of atom-centered diffuse functions; (c) the floating functions can be realized by ghost atoms and their positions could be determined through an optimization routine along the dipole moment vector direction. In addition, both the s- and p-type floating functions are necessary to supplement in the basis set which are responsible for the ground (s-type character) and excited (p-type character) states of the surface-bound excess electron, respectively. The exponents of the diffuse functions should also be determined to make the diffuse functions cover the main region of the excess electron distribution. Note that excessive augmentation of such diffuse functions is redundant and even can lead to unreasonable LUMO characteristics.