Improved parameterization of interatomic potentials for rare gas dimers with density-based energy decomposition analysis

We examine interatomic interactions for rare gas dimers using the density-based energy decomposition analysis (DEDA) in conjunction with computational results from CCSD(T) at the complete basis set (CBS) limit. The unique DEDA capability of separating frozen density interactions from density relaxation contributions is employed to yield clean interaction components, and the results are found to be consistent with the typical physical picture that density relaxations play a very minimal role in rare gas interactions. Equipped with each interaction component as reference, we develop a new three-term molecular mechanical force field to describe rare gas dimers: a smeared charge multipole model for electrostatics with charge penetration effects, a B3LYP-D3 dispersion term for asymptotically correct long-range attractions that is screened at short-range, and a Born-Mayer exponential function for the repulsion. The resulted force field not only reproduces rare gas interaction energies calculated at the CCSD(T)/CBS level, but also yields each interaction component (electrostatic or van der Waals) which agrees very well with its corresponding reference value.