Optical study of Te₈ ring clusters: comparison with density functional theory and a step towards materials design using nanoporous zeolite space

The Te8 ring molecule (cluster) is poorly investigated due to the lack of experimental data. Here, we report an experimental and theoretical study of a regular array of oriented Te8 rings formed in the similar to 1.14 nm diameter cavities of zeolite LTA, which are arranged in a cubic lattice with a spacing of similar to 1.2 nm. Single crystals of LTA with encapsulated tellurium (LTA-Te) were studied using Raman spectroscopy (RS) and optical absorption spectroscopy (OAS). The experimental LTA-Te spectra were found to be in agreement with those calculated using density functional theory (PBE0 hybrid functional and def2-TZVP basis sets) for the crown-shaped Te8 ring molecule with D4d symmetry. Using polarization-orientation RS, we show that the Te8 rings are oriented by their major axes along the 4-fold axes of cubic LTA. We also show that the site symmetry of Te8 in LTA-Te is lower than D4d. Te8 bond-bending modes are well described in the harmonic approximation, while bond-stretching modes are mixed due to the reduced ring symmetry and, probably, anharmonicity. Importantly, OAS data of LTA-Te display dependence on the Te8 concentration, implying the interaction of the rings from neighbouring LTA cavities with the generation of the valence and conduction electron bands of such a cluster crystal.