Abstract
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•Multiconfigurational calculations on the electronic states of VN2+ and VN3+.•Confirmation of the stability of these cations in gas phase.•Deductions of their spectroscopic and thermochemical parameters.
Using ab initio configuration interaction methodologies, we compute the potentials of the doubly and triply charged vanadium nitride. By performing benchmark calculations, we show that the 4s and 3d AOs are enough for the accurate description of VN multiple ionizations. In VN2+, several deep potential wells are located below the lowest dissociation limit. Within these potential wells, long-lived rovibrational levels may be found. Specifically, we find an unconventional shape for the ground state potential of VN2+ that differs from the volcanic form typical of dications. For VN3+, four shallow potential wells were characterized that may support rovibrational levels, where metastable VN3+ can be found. Accordingly, we predict the existence of VN2+ and VN3+ species in the gas phase as already noticed experimentally for the dication VN2+. For the bound states, we provide a set of accurate spectroscopic parameters. Double and triple ionization energies of VN are computed to be 23.56 and 51.05 eV, respectively.