VARIATIONAL CALCULATIONS OF VIBRATIONAL-STATES OF N2O USING HYPERSPHERICAL NORMAL COORDINATES

Accurate variational calculations are presented for highly excited vib rational bound states of N2O using different recently proposed ab init io and empirical potential energy surfaces. All these potential surfac es are expressed as series expansions in terms of internal displacemen t coordinates. Transformations of them into Simons, Parr and Finlan (S PF) and Morse expansion are also considered. The vibrational state cal culations are performed using a set of curvilinear hyperspherical norm al coordinates derived from Radau coordinates. The vibrational energie s are compared with experimental data and the quality of the potential energy surfaces used is discussed. (C) 1996 American Institute of Phy sics.