Au22+ has bound excited states

Quasirelativistic Douglas–Kroll CASPT2 calculations are reported for the ground and excited electronic states of Au22+. The ground-state potential energy curve is confirmed to be totally repulsive whereas the 3Σu+ and 1Σu+ excited state curves show metastable minima with barrier heights of 0.66 and 0.37 eV, respectively. Analogous calculations are also reported for the Au2 and Au2+ ground states. The species, or states, with one electron in the bonding 6sσg orbital have almost as short bond lengths as those with two electrons.