11.5 Visualizing and Plotting Orbitals, Densities, and Other Volumetric Data

11.5.5 NCI Plots

Weitao Yang and co-workers439, 187 have shown that the reduced density gradient,

s⁢(𝐫)=(12⁢(3⁢π2)1/3)⁢∥∇^⁢ρ⁢(𝐫)∥ρ⁢(𝐫)4/3 (11.17)

provides a convenient indicator of noncovalent interactions, which are characterized by large density gradients in regions of space where the density itself is small, leading to very large values of s⁢(𝐫). Q-Chem can generate noncovalent interactions (NCI) plots of the function s⁢(𝐫) in three-dimensional space. To generate these, set the PLOT_REDUCED_DENSITY_GRAD $rem variable to TRUE. (See the nci-c8h14.in input example in $QC/samples directory.)