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SignificanceIn a theoretical study, we present an ultrafast technique for probing time-dependent molecular charge densities. An ultrafast optical pump first brings the molecule into an electronic nonstationary state. This is followed by coherent inelastic scattering of a broadband single-electron probe pulse with a variable delay T, which is detected spectrally. The technique is applied to reveal phase-sensitive background-free coherent electron beating in the conical intersection passage in uracil and reveals the otherwise elusive coherent beating of strongly coupled electrons and nuclei.

X-ray diffraction is routinely used for structure determination of stationary molecular samples. Modern X-ray photon sources, e.g., from free-electron lasers, enable us to add temporal resolution to these scattering events, thereby providing a movie of atomic motions. We simulate and decipher the various contributions to the X-ray diffraction pattern for the femtosecond isomerization of azobenzene, a textbook photochemical process. A wealth of information is encoded besides real-time monitoring of the molecular charge density for the cis to trans isomerization. In particular, vibronic coherences emerge at the conical intersection, contributing to the total diffraction signal by mixed elastic and inelastic photon scattering. They cause distinct phase modulations in momentum space, which directly reflect the real-space phase modulation of the electronic transition density during the nonadiabatic passage. To overcome the masking by the intense elastic scattering contributions from the electronic populations in the total diffraction signal, we discuss how this information can be retrieved, e.g., by employing very hard X-rays to record large scattering momentum transfers.

The rates and outcomes of virtually all photophysical and photochemical processes are determined by conical intersections. These are regions of degeneracy between electronic states on the nuclear landscape of molecules where electrons and nuclei evolve on comparable timescales and thus become strongly coupled, enabling radiationless relaxation channels upon optical excitation. Due to their ultrafast nature and vast complexity, monitoring conical intersections experimentally is an open challenge. We present a simulation study on the ultrafast photorelaxation of uracil, based on a quantum description of the nuclei. We demonstrate an additional window into conical intersections obtained by recording the transient wavepacket coherence during this passage with an X-ray free-electron laser pulse. Two major findings are reported. First, we find that the vibronic coherence at the conical intersection lives for several hundred femtoseconds and can be measured during this entire time. Second, the time-dependent energy-splitting landscape of the participating vibrational and electronic states is directly extracted from Wigner spectrograms of the signal. These offer a physical picture of the quantum conical intersection pathways through visualizing their transient vibronic coherence distributions. The path of a nuclear wavepacket in the vicinity of the conical intersection is directly mapped by the proposed experiment.

Light-driven phenomena in organic molecular aggregates underpin several mechanisms relevant to optoelectronic applications. Modeling these processes is essential for aiding the design of new materials and optimizing optoelectronic devices. In this review, we cover the use of different atomistic models, excited-state dynamics, and transport approaches for understanding light-activated phenomena in molecular aggregates, including radiative and nonradiative decay pathways. We consider both intra- and intermolecular mechanisms and focus on the role of conical intersections as facilitators of internal conversion. We explore the use of the exciton models for Frenkel and charge transfer states and the electronic structure methods and algorithms commonly applied for excited-state dynamics. Throughout the review, we analyze the approximations employed for the simulation of internal conversion, intersystem crossing, and reverse intersystem crossing rates and analyze the molecular processes behind single fission, triplet-triplet annihilation, Dexter energy transfer, and Förster energy transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elementary events that determine photochemical outcomes and molecular functionalities happen on the femtosecond and subfemtosecond timescales. Among the most ubiquitous events are the nonadiabatic dynamics taking place at conical intersections. These facilitate ultrafast, nonradiative transitions between electronic states in molecules that can outcompete slower relaxation mechanisms such as fluorescence. The rise of ultrafast X-ray sources, which provide intense light pulses with ever-shorter durations and larger observation bandwidths, has fundamentally revolutionized our spectroscopic capabilities to detect conical intersections. Recent theoretical studies have demonstrated an entirely new signature emerging once a molecule traverses a conical intersection, giving detailed insights into the coupled nuclear and electronic motions that underlie, facilitate, and ultimately determine the ultrafast molecular dynamics. Following a summary of current sources and experiments, we survey these techniques and provide a unified overview of their capabilities. We discuss their potential to dramatically increase our understanding of ultrafast photochemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of novel coherent and brilliant sources, such as soft X-ray free electron laser (FEL) and high harmonic generation (HHG), enables new ultrafast analysis of the electronic and structural dynamics of a wide variety of materials. Soft X-ray FEL delivers high-brilliance beams with a short pulse duration, high spatial coherence and photon energy tunability. In comparison with FELs, HHG X-ray sources are characterized by a wide spectral bandwidth and few- to sub-femtosecond pulses. The approach will lead to the time-resolved reconstruction of molecular dynamics, shedding light on different photochemical pathways. The high peak brilliance of soft X-ray FELs facilitates investigations in a nonlinear regime, while the broader spectral bandwidth of the HHG sources may provide the simultaneous probing of multiple components. Significant technical breakthroughs in these novel sources are under way to improve brilliance, pulse duration, and to control spectral bandwidth, spot size, and energy resolution. Therefore, in the next few years, the new generation of soft X-ray sources combined with novel experimental techniques, new detectors, and computing capabilities will allow for the study of several extremely fast dynamics, such as vibronic dynamics. In the present review, we discuss recent developments in experiments, performed with soft X-ray FELs and HHG sources, operating near the carbon K-absorption edge, being a key atomic component in biosystems and soft materials. Different spectroscopy methods such as time-resolved pump-probe techniques, nonlinear spectroscopies and photoelectron spectroscopy studies have been addressed in an attempt to better understand fundamental physico-chemical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the topological properties, in terms of the Berry phase, of the 2D noninteracting system with electron–hole band inversion, described by the two-band generalized analogue of the low-energy Bernevig–Hughes–Zhang Hamiltonian, yielding the W-shaped energy bands in the form of two intersecting cones with the gap along the closed continuous loop. We identify the range of parameters where the Berry phase attains qualitatively different values: (a) the integer multiplier of 2 π , (b) the integer multiplier of π , and (c) the nontrivial value between the latter two, which depends on the system parameters. The system thus exhibits the anomalous quantum Hall effect associated with the nontrivial geometric phase, which is presumably tunable through the choice of parameters at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate how the wavelet transform, which is a powerful tool for compression, filtering, and scaling analysis of signals, may be used to separate large- and short-scale electron density features in X-ray diffraction patterns. Wavelets can isolate the electron density associated with delocalized bonds from the much stronger background of highly localized core electrons. The wavelet-processed signals clearly reveal the bond formation and breaking in the early steps of the photoinduced pericyclic ring opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene, which are not resolved in the bare signal.

Light-induced nonadiabatic phenomena arise when molecules or molecular ensembles are exposed to resonant external electromagnetic fields. The latter can either be classical laser or quantized cavity radiation fields, which can couple to either the electronic, nuclear or rotational degrees of freedom of the molecule. In the case of quantized radiation fields, the lightâ€"matter coupling results in the formation of two new hybrid lightâ€"matter states, namely the upper and lower ‘polaritons’. Light-induced avoided crossings and light-induced conical intersections (CIs) between polaritons exist as a function of the vibrational and rotational coordinates of single molecules. For ensembles of N molecules, the N âˆ' 1 dark states between the two optically active polaritons feature, additionally, so-called collective CIs, involving the coordinates of more than one molecule to form. Here, we study the competition between intramolecular and collective light-induced nonadiabatic phenomena by comparing the escape rate from the Franckâ€"Condon region of a single molecule and of a molecular ensemble coupled to a cavity mode. In situations where the polaritonic gap would be large and the dark-state decay channels could not be reached effectively, the presence of a seam of light-induced CI between the polaritons facilitates again the participation of the dark manifold, resulting in a cooperative effect that determines the overall non-radiative decay rate from the upper into the lower polaritonic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many chemical reactions exhibit nonadiabatic effects as a consequence of coupling between electronic states and/or interaction with light. While a fully quantum description of nonadiabatic reactions is unfeasible for most realistic molecules, a more computationally tractable approach is to combine a classical description of the nuclei with a quantum description of the electronic states. Combining the formalisms of quantum and classical dynamics is however a difficult problem for which standard methods (such as Ehrenfest dynamics and surface hopping) may be insufficient. In this article, we review a new trajectory-based approach developed in our group that is able to describe nonadiabatic dynamics with a higher accuracy than previous approaches but for a similar level of computational effort. This method treats the electronic states with a phase-space representation for discrete-level systems, which in the two-level case is analogous to a spin-½. We point out the key features of the method and demonstrate its use in a variety of applications, including ultrafast transfer through conical intersections, damped coherent excitation under coupling to a strong light field, and nonlinear spectroscopy of light-harvesting complexes.

The dynamics of the dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) radical cation after production by strong field adiabatic ionization have been investigated. Pump-probe experiments using strong field 1300 nm pulses to adiabatically ionize DMMP and a 800 nm non-ionizing probe induce coherent oscillations of the parent ion yield with a period of about 45 fs. The yields of two fragments, PO2C2H7+ and PO2CH4+, oscillate approximately out of phase with the parent ion, but with a slight phase shift relative to each other. We use electronic structure theory and nonadiabatic surface hopping dynamics to understand the underlying dynamics. The results show that while the cation oscillates on the ground state along the P=O bond stretch coordinate, the probe excites population to higher electronic states that can lead to fragments PO2C2H7+ and PO2CH4+. The computational results combined with the experimental observations indicate that the two conformers of DMMP that are populated under experimental conditions exhibit different dynamics after being excited to the higher electronic states of the cation leading to different dissociation products. These results highlight the potential usefulness of these pump-probe measurements as a tool to study conformer-specific dynamics in molecules of biological interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compound 6,6'-dibromoindigo, which is the main component of the pigment Tyrian purple, was studied theoretically at the TDDFT level of theory. We found that the absorption maximum of the compound about 600 nm underwent a red-shift when moving from the gas phase in solution. With the located two conical intersections S0/S0 we investigated (TD-DFT) the mechanisms connecting these structures with the ground state equilibrium geometry. It was established that the conical intersections are not accessible along any of the excited-state reaction paths which implies optical deactivation of the first excited state of the compound. With respect to these mechanisms the pigment should exhibit high photostability when exposed to visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of novel coherent and brilliant sources, such as soft X-ray free electron laser (FEL) and high harmonic generation (HHG), enables new ultrafast analysis of the electronic and structural dynamics of a wide variety of materials. Soft X-ray FEL delivers high-brilliance beams with a short pulse duration, high spatial coherence and photon energy tunability. In comparison with FELs, HHG X-ray sources are characterized by a wide spectral bandwidth and few- to sub-femtosecond pulses. The approach will lead to the time-resolved reconstruction of molecular dynamics, shedding light on different photochemical pathways. The high peak brilliance of soft X-ray FELs facilitates investigations in a nonlinear regime, while the broader spectral bandwidth of the HHG sources may provide the simultaneous probing of multiple components. Significant technical breakthroughs in these novel sources are under way to improve brilliance, pulse duration, and to control spectral bandwidth, spot size, and energy resolution. Therefore, in the next few years, the new generation of soft X-ray sources combined with novel experimental techniques, new detectors, and computing capabilities will allow for the study of several extremely fast dynamics, such as vibronic dynamics. In the present review, we discuss recent developments in experiments, performed with soft X-ray FELs and HHG sources, operating near the carbon K-absorption edge, being a key atomic component in biosystems and soft materials. Different spectroscopy methods such as time-resolved pump-probe techniques, nonlinear spectroscopies and photoelectron spectroscopy studies have been addressed in an attempt to better understand fundamental physico-chemical processes.

Electronic spectroscopy of DNA bases in the gas phase provides detailed information about the electronic excitation, which places the molecule in the Franck-Condon region in the excited state and thus prepares the starting conditions for excited-state dynamics. Double resonance or hole-burning spectroscopy in the gas phase can provide such information with isomer specificity, probing the starting potential energy landscape as a function of tautomeric form, isomeric structure, or hydrogen bonded or stacked cluster structure. Action spectroscopy, such REMPI, can be affected by excited-state lifetimes.

Electronic spectroscopy of DNA bases in the gas phase provides detailed information about the electronic excitation, which places the molecule in the Franck-Condon region in the excited state and thus prepares the starting conditions for excited-state dynamics. Double resonance or hole-burning spectroscopy in the gas phase can provide such information with isomer specificity, probing the starting potential energy landscape as a function of tautomeric form, isomeric structure, or hydrogen bonded or stacked cluster structure. Action spectroscopy, such REMPI, can be affected by excited-state lifetimes.

The dynamics of the dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) radical cation after production by strong field adiabatic ionization have been investigated. Pump-probe experiments using strong field 1300 nm pulses to adiabatically ionize DMMP and a 800 nm non-ionizing probe induce coherent oscillations of the parent ion yield with a period of about 45 fs. The yields of two fragments, PO2C2H7+ and PO2CH4+, oscillate approximately out of phase with the parent ion, but with a slight phase shift relative to each other. We use electronic structure theory and nonadiabatic surface hopping dynamics to understand the underlying dynamics. The results show that while the cation oscillates on the ground state along the P=O bond stretch coordinate, the probe excites population to higher electronic states that can lead to fragments PO2C2H7+ and PO2CH4+. The computational results combined with the experimental observations indicate that the two conformers of DMMP that are populated under experimental conditions exhibit different dynamics after being excited to the higher electronic states of the cation leading to different dissociation products. These results highlight the potential usefulness of these pump-probe measurements as a tool to study conformer-specific dynamics in molecules of biological interest.

The imino tautomers of isocytosine were objects of investigation at the TD-DFT level of theory - TD BLYP/6-311++G(d,p). We studied the mechanisms of the H1-N detachment in these tautomers through excited-state reaction paths. It was proposed that these transformations occur through the 1ps* excited-state reaction paths of the imino tautomers. The mechanisms involve dissociations of the N1-H bonds in the tautomers and lead to crossings between the reaction paths of 1ps* and S0 electronic states. One can suppose that such processes would facilitate the tautomerizations of the imino tautomers if further mechanisms have been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-induced nonadiabatic phenomena arise when molecules or molecular ensembles are exposed to resonant external electromagnetic fields. The latter can either be classical laser or quantized cavity radiation fields, which can couple to either the electronic, nuclear or rotational degrees of freedom of the molecule. In the case of quantized radiation fields, the light–matter coupling results in the formation of two new hybrid light–matter states, namely the upper and lower ‘polaritons’. Light-induced avoided crossings and light-induced conical intersections (CIs) between polaritons exist as a function of the vibrational and rotational coordinates of single molecules. For ensembles of N molecules, the N − 1 dark states between the two optically active polaritons feature, additionally, so-called collective CIs, involving the coordinates of more than one molecule to form. Here, we study the competition between intramolecular and collective light-induced nonadiabatic phenomena by comparing the escape rate from the Franck–Condon region of a single molecule and of a molecular ensemble coupled to a cavity mode. In situations where the polaritonic gap would be large and the dark-state decay channels could not be reached effectively, the presence of a seam of light-induced CI between the polaritons facilitates again the participation of the dark manifold, resulting in a cooperative effect that determines the overall non-radiative decay rate from the upper into the lower polaritonic states.

Thymine photochemistry is important for understanding DNA photodamage. In the gas phase, thymine undergoes a fast non-radiative decay from S2 to S1. In the S1 state, it gets trapped for several picoseconds until returning to the ground-state S0. Here, we explore the electrostatic effects of nanomeric droplets of methanol and water on the excited states of thymine. For this purpose, we develop and implement an electrostatic embedding TD-DFT/MM method based on a QM/MM coupling defined through electrostatic potential fitting charges. We show that both in methanol and water, the mechanism is similar to the gas phase. The solvent molecules participate in defining the branching plane of S0/S1 intersection and have a negligible effect on the S1/S2 intersection. Despite the wrong topology of the ground/excited state intersections, electrostatic embedding TD-DFT/MM allows for a fast exploration of the potential energy surfaces and a qualitative picture of the photophysics of thymine in solvent droplets.

Basic knowledge of mankind so far relates to the description of electrons and atoms in the material in a state of equilibrium, where the behavior changes slowly over time. The electron diffraction with a high temporal and space resolution has opened the possibility of direct observation of the processes occurring in the transient state of the substance (molecular movie). Here it is necessary to provide a temporary resolution of the order of 100 fs, which corresponds to the transition of the system through the energy barrier of the potential surface, which describes the chemical reaction - the process of the breaking and the formation of new bonds between the interacting agents. Thus, the possibility of the investigation of the coherent nuclear dynamics of molecular systems and the condensed matter can be opened. In the past two decades, it has been possible to observe the nuclear motion in the temporal interval corresponding to the period of the nuclear oscillation. The observed coherent changes in the nuclear system at such temporal intervals determine the fundamental shift from the standard kinetics of chemical reactions to the dynamics of the phase trajectory of a single molecule, the molecular quantum state tomography.

We demonstrate how the wavelet transform, which is a powerful tool for compression, filtering, and scaling analysis of signals, may be used to separate large- and short-scale electron density features in X-ray diffraction patterns. Wavelets can isolate the electron density associated with delocalized bonds from the much stronger background of highly localized core electrons. The wavelet-processed signals clearly reveal the bond formation and breaking in the early steps of the photoinduced pericyclic ring opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene, which are not resolved in the bare signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exciting a molecule with an ultraviolet photon often leads to bond fission, but the final outcome of the bond cleavage is typically both molecule tnd phase dependent. The photodissociation of an isolated gas-phase molecule can be viewed as a closed system: Energy and momentum are conserved, and the fragmentation is irreversible. The same is not true in a solutionphase photodissociation process. Solvent interactions may dissipate some of the photoexcitation energy prior to bond fission and will dissipate any excess energy partitioned into the dissociation products. Products that have no analog in the corresponding gas-phase study may arise by, for example, geminate recombination. Here, we illustrate the extent to which dynamical insights from gas-phase studies can inform our understanding of the corresponding solution-phase photochemistry and how. in the specific case of photoinduced ring-opening reactions, solution-phase studies can in some cases reveal dynamical insights more clearly than die corresponding gas-phase study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-guanosine (8-oxo-G), which is the main product of oxidative damage of DNA, can repair cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) lesions when incorporated into DNA or RNA strands in proximity to such lesions. It has therefore been suggested that the 8-oxo-G nucleoside may have been a primordial precursor of present-day flavins in DNA or RNA repair. Because the electron transfer leading to the splitting of a thymine-thymine pair in a CPD lesion occurs in the photoexcited state, a reasonably long excited-state lifetime of 8-oxo-G is required. The neutral (protonated) form of 8-oxo-G exhibits a very short (sub-picosecond) intrinsic excited-state lifetime which is unfavorable for repair. It has therefore been argued that the anionic (deprotonated) form of 8-oxo-G, which exhibits a much longer excited-state lifetime, is more likely to be a suitable cofactor for DNA repair. Herein, we have investigated the exited-state quenching mechanisms in the hydrogen-bonded complexes of deprotonated 8-oxo-G− with adenine (A) and cytosine (C) using ab initio wave-function-based electronic-structure calculations. The calculated reaction paths and potential-energy profiles reveal the existence of barrierless electron-driven inter-base proton-transfer reactions which lead to low-lying S1/S0 conical intersections. The latter can promote ultrafast excited-state deactivation of the anionic base pairs. While the isolated deprotonated 8-oxo-G− nucleoside may have been an efficient primordial repair cofactor, the excited states of the 8-oxo-G−-A and 8-oxo-G−-C base pairs are likely too short-lived to be efficient electron-transfer repair agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical investigation of the nonradiative relaxation dynamics associated with the low-lying excited electronic states of mono-arm styrylbenzene heteroanalogues. These molecules possess near-degenerate S 1 (bright π π ∗ ) and S 2 (dark n π ∗ ) states, enabling intersystem crossing via both states upon photoexcitation to S 1. Singlet-triplet energy gaps and associated spin-orbit coupling parameters suggest favorable intersystem crossing via S 2 → T 5. The nuclear wavepacket initiated at the Franck-Condon point of the receiver triplet state (T 5) decays rapidly to lower triplet states via accessible multiple conical intersections, indicating the ultrafast formation of T 1 in these molecules. Our findings show that these molecules would transfer energy to molecular oxygen via T 1. • T 1 formation pathways of mono-arm styrylbenzene heteroanalogues are investigated. • TD-DFT calculations and SOC values reveal S 2 -T 5 as the triplet generating channel. • Conical intersections in the triplet manifold lead to ultrafast internal conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excited-state decay mechanisms of 5-vinyluracil (5VU) are explored by using a combination of experimental and theoretical methods. The effects of vinyl substitutent, including the π-π conjugation effect and intramolecular hydrogen bond, are discussed. 5VU comprises the conformers 5VUA and 5VUB at ground state, with and without an intramolecular hydrogen bond C H⋯O C, respectively. The steady-state absorption and fluorescence spectra of 5VU are significantly red-shifted with respect to that of uracil. The time-resolved experimental results show that the excited-state decays of 5VU can be described by using three time constants: 2.26 ps, 13.45 ps and 4.66 ns. The decay pathways of 5VU obtained with the linearly interpolated internal coordinate method, predict that the two shorter lifetimes of 2.26 ps and 13.45 ps are attributed to 5VUB, and that the longest lifetime of 4.66 ns is attributed to 5VUA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We summarize how gas-phase ultrafast charged-particle spectroscopy has been used to provide an understanding of the photophysics of DNA building blocks. We focus on adenine and discuss how, following UV excitation, specific interactions determine the fates of its excited states. The dynamics can be probed using a systematic bottom-up approach that provides control over these interactions and that allows ever-larger complexes to be studied. Starting from a chromophore in adenine, the excited state decay mechanisms of adenine and chemically substituted or clustered adenine are considered and then extended to adenosine mono-, di-, and trinucleotides. We show that the gas-phase approach can offer exquisite insight into the dynamics observed in aqueous solution, but we also highlight stark differences. An outlook is provided that discusses some of the most promising developments in this bottom-up approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a comparative computational CASPT2 and CC2 study of the deactivation mechanisms of electronically excited cytosine (Cyt) and 2,4-diaminopyrimidine (DAPy). A number of S 1 / S 0 conical intersections exhibiting N H bond elongation were optimized. These conical intersections are accessible from the Franck–Condon region along 1 πσ* excited-state reaction paths. We also focus on the phototautomerism of DAPy and propose the photoinduced dissociation-association (PIDA) mechanism for this process. Supplementary experimental results on the UV irradiation of DAPy in acetonitrile solution show tautomerization to imino tautomers. By analyzing differences in the photophysics of the nucleobase Cyt and its analogue DAPy, this study provides new insight into the varying degrees of photostability between nucleobases and their close analogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When initially excited to its first singlet excited state, acetophenone, a prototypical aromatic ketone, is characterized by a singlet to triplet conversion quantum yield close to 100%. In this work, the time evolution of photo-excited acetophenone is theoretically investigated using quantum dynamics simulations based on the Multi Configuration Time Dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method. A model Hamiltonian, comprising both electronic and vibronic terms, is defined and its parameters are fitted to available data obtained by high-level quantum chemical calculations. An exploratory MCTDH dynamics shows a sequential mechanism S 1 →T 2 →T 1 . The population in the triplet manifold is distributed evenly among the two states, explaining the origin of acetophenone rich photochemistry. Initialement excité vers son premier état excité singulet, l’acétophénone, une cétone aromatique typique, est caractérisée par une conversion singulet vers triplet proche de 100%. Dans ce travail, l’évolution temporelle de l’acétophénone photo-excitée est étudiée de fa,on théorique par dynamique quantique basée sur la méthode Multi Configuration Time Dependent Hartree (MCTDH). Un Hamiltonien modèle, comprenant des termes électroniques et vibroniques, est défini et ses paramètres sont déterminés à partir de données obtenues par des calculs de chimie quantique de haut niveau. La dynamique MCTDH exploratoire montre un mécanisme séquentiel S 1 →T 2 →T 1 . La population est distribuée également dans les deux états triplet, expliquant l’origine de la photochimie riche de l’acétophénone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conical intersections play a major role in the current understanding of electronic de-excitation in polyatomic molecules, and thus in the description of photochemistry and photo physics of molecular systems. This article reviews aspects of the basic theory underlying the description of non-adiabatic transitions at conical intersections, with particular emphasis on the important case when the dynamics of the nuclei are treated classically. Within this classical nuclear motion framework, the main aspects of the surface hopping methodology in the conical intersection context are presented. The emerging picture from this treatment is that of electronic transitions around conical intersections dominated by the interplay of the nuclear velocity and the derivative non-adiabatic coupling vector field.

Previous descriptions of the cyclopentoxy radical have considered the ground state as an isolated electronic state; however, the doublet ground and first excited states of the cyclopentoxy radical arise from three electrons in the oxygen 2pπ orbitals, yielding states that may not be adequately described by a single state model. In this work, a prelude to the determination of the photoelectron spectrum of cyclopentoxide, the electronic structure of the ground and first excited state of cyclopentoxy is studied. Both axial and equatorial structures are considered. The ground state is found to have an axial configuration. Conical intersections of the ground and excited state potential energy surfaces in both axial and equatorial nuclear configurations are found, with the minimum energy axial (equatorial) conical intersection lying within ∼515 (260) cm −1 of the axial (equatorial) ground state minimum. The barriers to axial–equatorial interconversion and to ring opening are estimated. The implications for the simulation of the cyclopentoxide photoelectron spectrum are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The FCNS ⇆ FC(NS) photoisomerization process is a simple model system for molecular switches. Here, we examined the switching processes by experimental and theoretical methods. Prior matrix-isolation IR spectroscopic studies were complemented by matrix-isolation UV spectroscopic measurements to assist the interpretation of the mechanism of the ring closure and opening processes and to verify the accuracy of the computations on the vertical excitation energies. Vertical excitation energies were computed by the EOMEE-CCSD, MCSCF, and MR-CISD methods. Conical intersections were also searched for and three conical intersections along the reaction path FCNS → FC(NS) were located, one conical intersection between the 2A′ and 1A″ state, one between the 1A″ and 1A′ state and one where all three states intersect. The ring opening and closing processes were simulated by non-adiabatic dynamics propagation with the trajectory surface hopping method. The combined computational and experimental results suggest that upon 365 nm irradiation the ring closure FCNS → FC(NS) occurs under participation of all three conical intersections, while 254 nm irradiation causes ring opening FC(NS) → FCNS. Both processes, especially the ring opening, are accompanied by fragmentation into FCN+S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gadusol shows one of the simplest structures among a series of natural UV-absorbing compounds that have been related to the photoprotective and antioxidant functions in aquatic organisms. CASPT2//CASSCF methodology was used to carry out a theoretical study on this basic structure in order to describe the underlying features responsible for the photoprotective capacity of the molecule. The influence of the enol-enolate equilibrium on the photophysical properties was explored. The results confirm that both forms undergo a rapid deactivation, which very efficiently dissipates light energy as heat. This work highlights the potential of molecular-level studies to provide an understanding of natural photoprotective mechanisms and gives support to the future design of structurally related new synthetic sunscreens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]