Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.108, No.28, 6025-6031, 2004
Toward understanding the electron density distribution in magnetic clusters: Insight from the ELF and AIM analyses of ground-state Fe-4
Topological analysis of the electron localization function (ELF) in the ground-state Fe-4 cluster reveals different regions of valence electron localization in terms of monosynaptic V(Fe-i), disynaptic V(Fe-i,Fe-j), trisynaptic V(Fe-i,Fe-j,Fe-k), and tetrasynaptic V(Fe-1,Fe-2,Fe-3,Fe-4) bonding valence attractors and basins. The degree of electron localization is found to be smaller than in a homogeneous electron gas with eta(r) less than or equal to 0.490. A relative fluctuation of the electron density in the valence basins ranges between 0.83 and 0.96, which indicates a rather substantial delocalization of the electron density. Approximately three valence a-electrons are localized at each iron core C(Fe-i=1,Fe-4) while two alpha-electrons, i.e., 0.5 e per one atom, are delocalized over the cluster. The valence electrons show a trend toward localization between iron sites and in the proximity of triangular faces of the cluster with the basin population of one electron. Metallic bonds in Fe-4 may be characterized as partially covalent and highly delocalized both spatially and electronically, which is reflected by a large number of local maxima and relatively large fluctuations, respectively.