Now we can look at your finished job and understand a bit more about what is happening, from the main menu along the top of the screen (in gaussview) choose "file" and then "open" from the pull-down menu
a new window will open with available files. Before selecting a file it is important to first check that under "File type" the pull-down menu has "Gaussian Output Files (*.out *.log) selected (2.). Also ensure you have the "Read Intermediate Geometries" tick-box checked (3.). Then click on the "open" button:
a new molecule window should open with your (optimised) molecule in it.
From the main menu along the top of the screen (in gaussview) choose "results" and then "optimization" from the pull-down menu:
a new window will open, use the mouse to expand it, this window has a graph showing how the energy and gradient have changed over the optimisation, yours may look slightly different from mine!
the first graph gives the energy of your molecule at each step of the optimisation
the second graph gives the gradient of the energy of your molecule at each step of the optimisation. What is a gradient?
there will be a more detailed explaination of these in the next section
now click on the green button to the left of the molecule window, this will show an animation of the optimisation steps, ie the different position of the nuclei for each step of the optimisation
click on the green button again to stop the animation, and use the small arrow buttons next to the green button to move through the structures, notice that a red circle moves over the energy and gradient graphs identifying the energy and gradient for each step
the first structure doesn't have any bonds! This is an important point, gaussview draws bonds based on a distance critera, so the fact that gaussview hasn't drawn bonds doesn't mean they are not there! Just that the distance exceeds some pre-defined value. "Bonds" in gausview are a structural convenience. What definition would you choose for the existence of a bond?
notice also that the last structure has the most negative energy and the smallest gradient.
