The format for the user–defined basis section is as follows:
$basis X 0 L K scale α1 CLmin1 CLmin+11 … CLmax1 α2 CLmin2 CLmin+12 … CLmax2 ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ αK CLminK CLmin+1K … CLmaxK **** $end
where X Atomic symbol of the atom (atomic number not accepted) L Angular momentum symbol (S, P, SP, D, F, G) K Degree of contraction of the shell (integer) scale Scaling to be applied to exponents (default is 1.00) ai Gaussian primitive exponent (positive real number) CLi Contraction coefficient for each angular momentum (non–zero real numbers).
Atoms are terminated with **** and the complete basis set is terminated with the $end keyword terminator. No blank lines can be incorporated within the general basis set input. Note that more than one contraction coefficient per line is one required for compound shells like SP. As with all Q-Chem input deck information, all input is case–insensitive.