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We compare different levels of theory for simulating excited state molecular dynamics and use time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements to benchmark the theory. We perform trajectory surface hopping simulations for uracil excited to the first bright state (ππ*) using three different levels of theory (CASSCF, MRCIS, and XMS-CASPT2) in order to understand the role of dynamical correlation in determining the excited state dynamics, with a focus on the coupling between different electronic states and internal conversion back to the ground state. These dynamics calculations are used to simulate the time-resolved photoelectron spectra. The comparison of the calculated and measured spectra allows us to draw conclusions regarding the relative insights and quantitative accuracy of the calculations at the three different levels of theory, demonstrating that detailed quantitative comparisons of time-resolved photoelectron spectra can be used to benchmark methodology.

Quasiclassical trajectories have been run for N 2 A 3 Σ u + + H 2 S collisions allowing for electronic transitions through surface hopping. An accurate multi-sheeted representation of the HN2 potential energy surface has been employed. For the rate constant at room temperature, we obtain 9.85 ± 0.16 × 10 - 10 cm 3 s - 1 , a value fivefold larger than the recommended experimental one. Unprecedently, we investigate the temperature dependence of the rate constant, and obtained an essentially flat Arrehenius plot. We estimate that the NH yield is at least one order of magnitude lower than the experimental upper limit.

We studied the ultrafast nuclear dynamics during the dissociation of ${\mathrm{OCS}}^{+}$ molecules using a strong IR-laser pump and probe technique in combination with the coincidence measurement. The nuclear movement is tracked by analyzing the time-dependent kinetic energy release (KER) spectra. The involved dissociation states and pathways are assigned with the help of the semiclassical Landau-Zener surface hopping calculations. The real-time bond-breaking dynamics of the ${3}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}A{}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ coupling to other states are observed for the two-body dissociation channel and the three-body dissociation channel but with high KER. The three-body dissociation channel with low KER is assigned to the direct breaking process from the ${3}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}A{}^{\ensuremath{''}}$ state. The overall agreements between the experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that the time-resolved Coulomb-explosion imaging is a valuable way to monitor the bond breaking and structural evolution of complex molecules.

An ab initio theoretical framework for the simulation of femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (TA) pump-probe (PP) spectra with quasi-classical trajectories is presented. The simulations are based on the classical approximation to the doorway-window (DW) representation of third-order four-wave-mixing signals. The DW formula accounts for the finite duration and spectral shape of the pump and probe pulses. In the classical DW formalism, classical trajectories are stochastically sampled from a positive definite doorway distribution, and the signals are evaluated by averaging over a positive definite window distribution. Nonadiabatic excited-state dynamics is described by a stochastic surface-hopping algorithm. The method has been implemented for the pyrazine molecule with the second-order algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC(2)) ab initio electronic-structure method. The methodology is illustrated by ab initio simulations of the ground-state bleach, stimulated emission, and excited-state absorption contributions to the TA PP spectrum of gas-phase pyrazine.

We present a theoretical study of the electron and nuclear dynamics that would arise in an attosecond two-color XUV-pump/XUV-probe experiment in glycine. In this scheme, the broadband pump pulse suddenly ionizes the molecule and creates an electronic wave packet that subsequently evolves under the influence of the nuclear motion until it is finally probed by the second XUV pulse. To describe the different steps of such an experiment, we have combined a multi-reference static-exchange scattering method with a trajectory surface hopping approach. We show that by changing the central frequency of the pump pulse, i.e., by engineering the initial electronic wave packet with the pump pulse, one can drive the cation dynamics into a specific fragmentation pathway. Reminiscence of this early electron dynamics can be observed in specific fragmentation channels (not all of them) as a function of the pump–probe delay and in time-resolved photoelectron spectra at specific photoelectron energies. The optimum conditions to visualize the initial electronic coherence in photoelectron and photo-ion spectra depend very much on the characteristics of the pump pulse as well as on the electronic structure of the molecule under study.

The photodissociation dynamics of methyl radical from selected vibrational levels of the 3 s and 3 p z Rydberg states has been studied using the trajectory surface hopping method on one-dimensional potential energy curves along the carbon-hydrogen dissociative coordinate and the non-adiabatic couplings between them, calculated by ab initio methods. Lifetimes and product distributions have been obtained for all the studied vibrational levels and compared with previous theoretical and experimental works. The theoretical lifetimes tend to decrease as vibrational excitation increases in accordance with experimental results. The agreement, however, is only qualitative considering the reduced dimensionality of the model.

A quasiclassical trajectory surface hopping (TSH) method is employed to study the O(3P,1D) + SiH4 reaction with special emphasis on the contribution of nonadiabatic path in the formation of various products. Tully’s fewest switches algorithm is used to compute nonadiabatic transitions. Our calculation showed that while the H formation is the most important channel for the O(3P) reaction with SiH4, the OH formation is the dominating channel for the O(1D) reaction, at an initial collision energy of 8 kcal/mol. Comparison with a recent crossed molecular beam experiment shows qualitative agreement so as to primary product branching ratios, except for the formation of H2O from the O(1D) reaction that was not detected experimentally. In addition our calculation revealed a major contribution (∼50%) of the H3SiO + H channel from the O(3P) + SiH4 reaction through an addition complex H4SiO intermediate which was also not explored, experimentally.

Surface-hopping dynamics coupled to linear response TDDFT and explicit nonadiabatic and spin–orbit couplings have been used to model the ultrafast intersystem crossing (ISC) dynamics in [Ru(bpy)3]2+. Simulations using an ensemble of trajectories starting from the singlet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (1MLCT) band show that the manifold of 3MLCT triplet states is first populated from high-lying singlet states within 26 ± 3 fs. ISC competes with an intricate internal conversion relaxation process within the singlet manifold to the lowest singlet state. Normal-mode analysis and principal component analysis, combined with further dynamical simulations where the nuclei are frozen, unequivocally demonstrate that it is not only the high density of states and the large spin–orbit couplings of the system that promote ISC. Instead, geometrical relaxation involving the nitrogen atoms is required to allow for state mixing and efficient triplet population transfer.

Journal of physics / B Atomic, molecular and optical physics 53(16), 164006 (2020). doi:10.1088/1361-6455/ab9658, Attosecond pulses can be used to generate coherent superpositions of cationic electronic states in molecules through photoionisation. These can drive coherent electronic dynamics, which may decay within a few femtoseconds due to nuclear motion. In this work, we study the impact of the photoelectron on decoherence in the valence electron system of molecules following attosecond photoionisation. To this end, we include the photoelectron as a classical point charge in a quantum–classical simulation of light-induced ultrafast molecular dynamics and consider ionisation by sub-femtosecond pulses with distinct qualities. By disentangling the contributions of photoelectron and nuclei to the overall electronic decoherence, we find that the photoelectron causes partial decoherence within the first 50 attoseconds. This timescale is noticed to be independent of the ionising pulse. Full electronic decoherence is only seen when the spatial extension of the nuclear wave packet is considered., Published by IOP Publ., Bristol

The fast and slow components of the relaxation of photoexcited thiophene have been investigated by means of SHARC (surface hopping including arbitrary couplings) molecular dynamics based on multiconfiguration electronic structure calculations. Triplet states are included to ascertain their role in the relaxation process. After thiophene is excited to the S1 state, ultrafast dynamics (τfast = 96 fs) initiates a ring opening due to cleavage of a carbon sulfur bond and simultaneous ring puckering. This time constant is in agreement with previous experimental and theoretical studies. The subsequent dynamics of the open-ring structures is characterized by the interplay of internal conversion and intersystem crossing. For the open-ring structures, the S0, S1, T1 and T2 states are nearly degenerate and the spin–orbit couplings are large. The underlying potential energy surface is flat and long-lived open-ring structures in the singlet as well as in the triplet states are formed. Both the participation of triplet states and the shape of the energy surface explain the experimentally observed slow ring closure in the ground state.

We recently outlined an efficient multi-tiered parallel ab initio excitonic framework that utilizes time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to calculate ground and excited state energies and gradients of large supramolecular complexes in atomistic detail – enabling us to undertake nonadiabatic simulations which explicitly account for the coupled anharmonic vibrational motion of all the constituent atoms in a supramolecular system. Here we apply that framework to the 27 coupled bacterio-cholorophyll-a chromophores which make up the LH2 complex, using it to compute an onthe-fly nonadiabatic surface-hopping (SH) trajectory of electronically excited LH2. Part one of this article is focussed on calibrating our ab initio exciton Hamiltonian using two key parameters: a shift δ, which corrects for the error in TDDFT vertical excitation energies; and an effective dielectric constant ε, which describes the average screening of the transition-dipole coupling betweenchromophores. Using snapshots obtained from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (MD) of LH2, we tune the values of both δ and ε through fitting to the thermally broadened experimental absorption spectrum, giving a linear absorption spectrum that agrees reasonably well with experiment. In the part two of this article, we construct a time-resolved picture of the coupledvibrational and excitation energy transfer (EET) dynamics in the sub-picosecond regime following photo-excitation. Assuming Franck-Condon excitation of a narrow eigenstate band centred at 800 nm, we use surface hopping to follow a single nonadiabatic dynamics trajectory within the full eigenstate manifold. Consistent with experimental data, this trajectory gives timescales forB800 → B850 population transfer (τ B800→B850 ) between 650 – 1050 fs, and B800 population decay ( τ 800→ ) between 10 – 50 fs. The dynamical picture that emerges is one of rapidly fluctuating LH2 eigenstates that are delocalized over multiple chromophores and undergo frequent crossing on a femtosecond timescale as a result of the atomic vibrations of the constituent chromophores. The eigenstate fluctuations arise from disorder that is driven by vibrational dynamics with multiple characteristic timescales. The scalability of our ab initio excitonic computational framework across massively parallel architectures opens up the possibility of addressing a wide range of questions, including how specific dynamical motions impact both the pathways and efficiency of electronicenergy-transfer within large supramolecular systems.

An on-the-fly trajectory surface hopping dynamic simulation has been performed for revealing the multi-state nonadiabatic deactivation mechanism of coumarin. The mechanism involves three adiabatic excited states, S3(ππ*Lb), S2(nπ*, ππ*La) and S1(ππ*La, nπ*), and the ground state S0 at the four state-averaged complete active space self-consistent field, SA4-CASSCF(12,10)/6-31G* level of theory. Upon photoexcitation to the third excited state S3(ππ*Lb) in the Franck–Condon region, 80% sampling trajectories decay to the dark S2(nπ*) state within an average of 5 fs via the conical intersection S3(ππ*Lb)/S2(nπ*), while 20% decay to the S2(ππ*La) state within an average of 11 fs via the conical intersection S3(ππ*Lb)/S2(ππ*La). Then, sampling trajectories via S2(nπ*)/S1(ππ*La) continue with ultrafast decay processes to give a final distribution of quantum yields as follows: 42% stay on the dark S1(nπ*) state, 43.3% go back to the ground S0 state, 12% undergo a ring-opening reaction to the Z-form S0(Z) state, and 2.7% go to the E-form S0(E) state. The lifetimes of the excited states are estimated as follows: the S3 state is about 12 fs on average, the S2 state is about 80 fs, and the S1 state has a fast component of about 160 fs and a slow component of 15 ps. The simulated ultrafast radiationless deactivation pathways of photoexcited coumarin immediately interpret the experimentally observed weak fluorescence emission.

Clear mechanistic insights into excited state dynamics in thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters are vital for understanding the origin of the photocatalytic enhancement via metal nanoparticles in the visible region. Extensive experimental studies on the [Au25(SR)18]−1 thiolate-protected gold nanocluster nonradiative relaxation dynamics reported very distinct time constants which span from the femtosecond to nanosecond scale. In this work, the nonradiative excited state relaxations of the [Au25(SH)18]−1 cluster are investigated theoretically to characterize the electron relaxation dynamics. The core and higher excited states lying in the energy range 0.00–2.20 eV are investigated using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The quantum dynamics of these states is studied using a surface hopping method with decoherence correction, augmented with a real-time approach to DFT. Population transfer from the S1 state to the ground state occurs on the several hundred picoseconds time scale. Relaxation b...

A number of single-reference post Hartree-Fock methods, namely CIS, symmetry adopted cluster configuration interaction (SA C-CI), equation of motion coupled cluster (EOM-CCSD) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), were used to investigate the excited state properties and photochemical dissociation of hypobromous acid, HOBr. Results are in good agreement with experimental data. The decay of the excited states of HOBr in the gas phase was examined by simulating the UV photoabsorption spectrum and nonadiabatic dynamics at the TDDFT M06-2X level of theory. The spectrum, composed of 10 excited states, was simulated with the nuclear ensemble approximation, sampling a Wigner distribution with 500 points. Dynamics simulations were done with the surface hopping method, started in two separate spectral windows, at 4.0 ± 0.25 eV and 8.0 ± 0.25 eV, to be compared to experimental UV spectral data. Three hundred trajectories were considered from each of these windows according to their excitation probabilities. The excited-state lifetime was determined. The main photochemical channel observed were HO and Br eliminations, representing 67% of all processes.

We perform time-resolved ionization spectroscopy measurements of the excited state dynamics of CH2I2 and CH2IBr following photoexcitation in the deep UV. The fragment ions produced by ionization with a vacuum-ultraviolet probe pulse are measured with velocity map imaging, and the momentum resolved yields are compared with trajectory surface hopping calculations of the measurement observable. Together with recent time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of the same dynamics, these results provide a detailed picture of the coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics involved. Our measurements highlight the non-adiabatic coupling between electronic states, which leads to notable differences in the dissociation dynamics for the two molecules.

We present UV pump, vacuum ultraviolet probe time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of the excited state dynamics of cis,cis-1,3-cyclooctadiene. A 4.75 eV deep UV pump pulse launches a vibrational wave packet on the first electronically excited state, and the ensuing dynamics are probed via ionization using a 7.92 eV probe pulse. The experimental results indicate that the wave packet undergoes rapid internal conversion to the ground state in under 100 fs. Comparing the measurements with electronic structure and trajectory surface hopping calculations, we are able to interpret the features in the measured photoelectron spectra in terms of ionization to several states of the molecular cation.

The deactivation dynamics of 1,1-difluoroethylene after light excitation is studied within the surface hopping formalism in the presence of 3s and 3p Rydberg states using multi-state second order perturbation theory (MS-CASPT2). Due to the proximity of the Rydberg π-3s state with the ππ* state, the states are mixed favoring ultrafast exchange of population via a conical intersection that closely resembles the equilibrium structure. After excitation, it is found that the π-3s state acts as a doorway state, trapping the population and delaying internal conversion to the ππ* state, from which deactivation to the closed-shell ground state takes place. Besides the conical intersection between the π-3s and ππ* states, five additional conical intersections between the ππ* state and the ground state are found, indicating that after the system is excited, it stretches the C[double bond, length as m-dash]C bond before it twists and pyramidalizes at any of the carbon atoms, in the spirit of a hula-twist mechanism.

The low-lying valence excited states and Rydberg states of the radical species from the ring-opening reactions in pyrolysis of furan biofuels have been determined by extensive density functional theory and sophisticated wave function theory calculations. The radicals 1-C4 H5 O-2, 2-furylCH2 , and 4-C6 H7 O with the delocalized π-type single electron are predicted to be most stable among the reactive species here for furan, 2-methyfuran, and 2,5-dimethylfuran, respectively. Predicted vertical transition energies by TD-CAM-B3LYP show good agreement with those by CASPT2. Some among the electronic excitations to low-lying states can take place in the visible light region, and they may be involved in the combustion process. Further surface hopping dynamics simulations on the excited states of the most stable ring-opening radical 1-C4 H5 O-2 of furan as an example reveal that 89.9% sampling trajectories at the initial excited state of 22 A"(π1 π*2 ) decay to the 12 A'(n1 π*2 ) state within an average of 384 fs, and then 81.2% trajectories at the 12 A' state go to the ground state within an average of 114 fs. At the end of the simulation for 1000 fs, 18.8% trajectories still stay on the excited states of 22 A" and 12 A', suggesting that the reactive radicals in the ground state are mainly responsible for the combustion chemistry of furan biofuels. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The excited states of the Criegee intermediate CH2OO are studied in molecular dynamics simulations using directly potentials from multi-reference perturbation theory (MR-PT2). The photoexcitation of the species is simulated, and trajectories are propagated in time on the excited state. Some of the photoexcitation events lead to direct fragmentation of the molecule, but other trajectories describe at least several vibrations in the excited state, that may terminate by relaxation to the ground electronic state. Limits on the role of non-adiabatic contributions to the process are estimated by two different simulations, one that forces surface-hopping at potential crossings, and another that ignores surface hopping altogether. The effect of non-adiabatic transitions is found to be small. Spectroscopic implications and consequences for the interpretation of experimental results are discussed.

The combustion relevant O((3)P) + C2H4 reaction stands out as a prototypical multichannel nonadiabatic reaction involving both triplet and singlet potential energy surfaces (PESs), which are strongly coupled. Crossed molecular beam (CMB) scattering experiments with universal soft electron ionization mass spectrometric detection have been used to characterize the dynamics of this reaction at the relatively high collision energy Ec of 13.7 kcal/mol, attained by crossing the reactant beams at an angle of 135°. This work is a full report of the data at the highest Ec investigated for this reaction. From laboratory product angular and velocity distribution measurements, angular and translational energy distributions in the center-of-mass system have been obtained for the five observed exothermic competing reaction channels leading to H + CH2CHO, H + CH3CO, CH3 + HCO, CH2 + H2CO, and H2 + CH2CO. The product branching ratios (BRs) have been derived. The elucidation of the reaction dynamics is assisted by synergic full-dimensional quasiclassical trajectory surface-hopping calculations of the reactive differential cross sections on coupled ab initio triplet/singlet PESs. This joint experimental/theoretical study extends and complements our previous combined CMB and theoretical work at the lower collision energy of 8.4 kcal/mol. The theoretically derived BRs and extent of intersystem crossing (ISC) are compared with experimental results. In particular, the predictions of the QCT results for the three main channels (those leading to vinoxy + H, methyl + HCO and methylene + H2CO formation) are compared directly with the experimental data in the laboratory frame. Good overall agreement is noted between theory and experiment, although some small, yet significant shortcomings of the theoretical differential cross section are noted. Both experiment and theory find almost an equal contribution from the triplet and singlet surfaces to the reaction, with a clear tendency of the degree of ISC to decrease with increasing Ec and with theory slightly overestimating the extent of ISC.

Photoinduced proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) plays an essential role in a wide range of energy conversion processes. Previous experiments on a phenol-amine complex in solution provided evidence of an electron-proton transfer (EPT) excited state characterized by both intramolecular charge transfer and proton transfer from the phenol to the amine. Herein we analyze hundreds of surface hopping trajectories to investigate the role of solvent dynamics following photoexcitation to the EPT state. This solvent dynamics leads to a significant decrease in the energy gap between the ground and EPT states, thereby facilitating decay to the ground state, and generates an electrostatic environment conducive to proton transfer on the EPT state. In addition to solvent reorganization, the geometrical properties at the hydrogen-bonding interface must be suitable to allow proton transfer. These mechanistic insights elucidate the underlying fundamental physical principles of photoinduced PCET processes.

The nonadiabatic photodissociation CH2OH(1(2)A) + hv → CH2OH(2,3(2)A) → CH2O + H or HCOH(cis or trans) + H is addressed using trajectory surface hopping dynamics on a quasi-diabatic representation, H(d), of the 1,2,3(2)A coupled, adiabatic potential energy surfaces. We focus on dynamics originating on the 2(2)A potential energy surface. The H(d) is based exclusively on electronic structure data obtained from a multireference configuration interaction single and double excitation expansion, composed of over 67 million configuration state functions, and treats all nine internal degrees of freedom in an even-handed manner. Each simulation is based on bundles of 10000 trajectories randomly selected from harmonic Wigner distributions and propagated for up to 1 ps. The bimodal distribution in the kinetic energy release spectrum is explained in terms of direct versus quasi-statistical dissociation.

Photodissociation dynamics of sulfuric acid after excitation to the first and second excited states ( S 1 and S 2 ) were studied by an on-the-fly ab initio molecular dynamics simulations based on the Zhu–Nakamura version of the trajectory surface hopping (ZN-TSH). Forces acting on the nuclear motion were computed on-the-fly by CASSCF method with Dunning’s augmented cc-pVDZ basis set. It was newly found that the parent molecule dissociated into two reaction-channels ( i ) HSO 4 (1 2 A″) + H( 2 S) by S 1 -excitation, and ( ii ) HSO 4 (2 2 A″) + H( 2 S) by S 2 -excitation. The direct dissociation dynamics yield products different from the SO 2 + 2OH fragments often presented in the literature. Both channels result in the same product and differs only in the electronic state of the HSO 4 fragment . The trajectories running on S 2 do not hop with S 0 and a nonadiabatic transition happens at the S 2 – S 1 conical intersection located at a longer OH bond-length than the S 1 – S 0 intersection producing an electronic excited state (2 2 A″) of HSO 4 product.

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.

The ability of time-independent nonadiabatic transition state theory (NA-TST) to reproduce intersystem crossing dynamics obtained from the more computationally demanding Tully fewest switches trajectory surface hopping method is investigated. The two approaches are applied to the intersystem crossing between the ground (1)A1 state and lowest energy (3)B1 state of SiH2, coupled through the spin-orbit interaction. For NA-TST, the transition probabilities are calculated using the Landau-Zener formula and the Delos formula which accounts for tunneling. The fewest switches method produces rate constants of 7.6 × 10(11) s(-1) for the triplet to singlet transition and 5.2 × 10(11) s(-1) for the singlet to triplet transition, using a first-order kinetics model. This corresponds to a triplet electronic state lifetime of 781 fs. The NA-TST predicted rate constants are 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller, leading to a larger triplet state lifetime, as compared with the fewest switches method. This discrepancy cannot be explained by the difference in transition probabilities obtained from NA-TST and fewest switches molecular dynamics, and it is believed to be a result of the NA-TST semilocal description of nonadiabatic transitions in the vicinity of the intersystem crossing. Also, the larger triplet state lifetime obtained from NA-TST could be a result of the quantum sampling of rovibrational states, which is missing in classical trajectories traversing the crossing seam.

Excited-state properties of molecules play a pivotal role in understanding their photophysical and photochemical behaviors. With the fast development of computational methodologies, the low-lying states of biorelated systems have been extensively investigated theoretically. Here, we review our recent works on the excited states of selected nucleobases and their related systems in the gas and condensed phases. The simulated electronic spectra of coumarin reproduce the band shape of experimental spectra and provide a basis to reasonably assign the observed bands. The absorption spectra and the excited-state dynamics of nucleic acid bases and their analogs in the gas phase and in aqueous solution have been explored by the combined quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations and QM/MM-based dynamics simulations with surface hopping. Based on extensive calculations and dynamics simulations, the solvent effects on the excited states and their dynamical behaviors have been discussed. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Photoinduced concerted electron-proton transfer (EPT), denoted photo-EPT, is important for a wide range of energy conversion processes. Transient absorption and Raman spectroscopy experiments on the hydrogen-bonded p-nitrophenylphenol-t-butylamine complex, solvated in 1,2-dichloroethane, suggested that this complex may undergo photo-EPT. The experiments probed two excited electronic states that were interpreted as an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state and an EPT state. Herein mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical nonadiabatic surface hopping dynamics is used to investigate the relaxation pathways following photoexcitation. The potential energy surface is generated on the fly with a semiempirical floating occupation molecular orbital complete active space configuration interaction method for the solute molecule and a molecular mechanical force field for the explicit solvent molecules. The free energy curves along the proton transfer coordinate illustrate that proton transfer is thermodynamically and kinetically favorable on the lower-energy excited state but not on the higher-energy excited state, supporting the characterization of these states as EPT and ICT, respectively. The nonadiabatic dynamics simulations indicate that the population decays from the ICT state to the EPT state in ∼100 fs and from the EPT state to the ground state on the slower time scale of ∼1 ps, qualitatively consistent with the experimental measurements. For ∼54% of the trajectories, the proton transfers from the phenol to the amine in ∼400 fs on the EPT state and then transfers back to the phenol rapidly upon decay to the ground state. Thus, these calculations augment the original interpretation of the experimental data by providing evidence of proton transfer on the EPT state prior to decay to the ground state. The fundamental insights obtained from these simulations are also relevant to other photo-EPT processes.

The excited state dynamics of a N-methylformamide dimer in complex with water molecules has been studied using the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and CAS perturbation theory to the second order (CASPT2) methods. The extent of delocalization of the first two excited states resulting from (n → π*) transitions on both monomers was monitored during the time course of on-the-fly surface hopping nonadiabatic dynamics. The results suggest that the excited states prefer delocalization between the two monomers in the complex. The bridging water molecules increase the magnitude of electronic coupling via through-bond interactions.

Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is performed on aqueous guanosine solution to study its excited-state relaxation dynamics. Experimental results are complemented by surface hopping dynamic simulations and evaluation of the excited-state ionization energy by Koopmans' theorem. Two alternative models for the relaxation dynamics are discussed. The experimentally observed excited-state lifetime is about 2.5 ps if the molecule is excited at 266 nm and about 1.1 ps if the molecule is excited at 238 nm. The experimental probe photon energy dependence of the photoelectron kinetic energy distribution suggests that the probe step is not vertical and involves a doubly-excited autoionizing state.

Using a simple model Hamiltonian, the three correction terms for Born-Oppenheimer (BO) breakdown, the adiabatic diagonal correction (DC), the first-derivative momentum non-adiabatic correction (FD), and the second-derivative kinetic-energy non-adiabatic correction (SD), are shown to all contribute to thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties as well as to thermal non-diabatic chemical reaction rates. While DC often accounts for80% of thermodynamic and spectroscopic property changes, the commonly used practice of including only the FD correction in kinetics calculations is rarely found to be adequate. For electron-transfer reactions not in the inverted region, the common physical picture that diabatic processes occur because of surface hopping at the transition state is proven inadequate as the DC acts first to block access, increasing the transition state energy by (ℏω)(2)λ/16J(2) (where λ is the reorganization energy, J the electronic coupling and ω the vibration frequency). However, the rate constant in the weakly-coupled Golden-Rule limit is identified as being only inversely proportional to this change rather than exponentially damped, owing to the effects of tunneling and surface hopping. Such weakly-coupled long-range electron-transfer processes should therefore not be described as "non-adiabatic" processes as they are easily described by Born-Huang ground-state adiabatic surfaces made by adding the DC to the BO surfaces; instead, they should be called just "non-Born-Oppenheimer" processes. The model system studied consists of two diabatic harmonic potential-energy surfaces coupled linearly through a single vibration, the "two-site Holstein model". Analytical expressions are derived for the BO breakdown terms, and the model is solved over a large parameter space focusing on both the lowest-energy spectroscopic transitions and the quantum dynamics of coherent-state wavepackets. BO breakdown is investigated pertinent to: ammonia inversion, aromaticity in benzene, the Creutz-Taube ion, the bacterial photosynthetic reaction centre, BNB, the molecular conductor Alq3, and inverted-region charge recombination in a ferrocene-porphyrin-fullerene triad photosynthetic model compound. Throughout, the fundamental nature of BO breakdown is linked to the properties of the cusp catastrophe: the cusp diameter is shown to determine the magnitudes of all couplings, numerical basis-set and trajectory-integration requirements, and to determine the transmission coefficient κ used to understand deviations from transition-state theory.

International audience; We implemented a version of the decoherence-corrected fewest switches surface hopping based on linear-response time-dependent density functional tight binding (TD-DFTB), enhanced by transition density analysis. The method has been tested for the gas-phase relaxation dynamics of two cycloparaphenylene molecules, [8]CPP and [10]CPP, explaining some important features of their nonadiabatic dynamics, such as the origin of their long fluorescence lifetimes (related to the slow radiative emission from the S-1 state) and the trend of increasing the fluorescence rate with the molecular size (related to an increase in the S-1-S-0 energy gaps and oscillator strengths in the larger molecule). The quality of the TD-DFTB electronic structure information was assessed through four quantities: excitation energies; charge-transfer (CT) numbers, which estimate the charge transfer character of states; participation ratio (PR), which describes delocalization of electronic density; and participation ratio of natural transition orbitals (PRNTO), which describes the multiconfigurational character of states. These quantities were computed during dynamics and recomputed for the same geometries with the higher-level long-range-corrected TD-LC-DFTB and a lower-level single-determinant approximation for the excited states, SD-(LC)-DFTB. Taking TD-LC-DFTB as the standard, TD-DFTB underestimates the excitation energies by similar to 0.5 eV and overestimates CT and PR. SD-DFTB underestimates excitation energies and overestimates CT to the same extent that TD-DFTB does, but it predicts reasonable PR distributions. SD-LC-DFTB leads to an extreme overestimation of the excitation energies by similar to 3 eV, overestimates the charge transfer character of the state, but predicts the PR values very close to those obtained with TD-LC-DFTB.

Trajectory surface hopping (TSH) methods have been widely used for the study of nonadiabatic molecular dynamics. In the present work, the accuracy of two TSH algorithms, Tully’s fewest switching algorithm and an algorithm based on the Landau-Zener formula, has been critically evaluated in comparison with exact nonadiabatic quantum dynamics calculations for a model of the photoinduced hydrogen-atom dissociation reaction in phenol. The model consists of three electronic states (S0, 1ππ*, 1πσ*) and two nuclear degrees of freedom (the OH stretching coordinate and CCOH dihedral angle) and displays two successive conical intersections (1ππ*/1πσ* and 1πσ*/S0). Considering instantaneous photoexcitation from different vibrational levels of the S0 state to the 1ππ* state, we examined the time-dependent electronic population dynamics as well as the branching ratio of the two dissociation channels. The results of fully converged trajectory calculations are compared with the results of exact quantum wave-packet calcul...

The nonadiabatic dynamics of keto isocytosine in the gas phase has been investigated using the on-the-fly trajectory surface hopping method based on two electronic-structure methods: SA-CASSCF and ADC(2). The results estimate an excited-state lifetime of around 1000 fs at the SA-CASSCF level, while a much shorter lifetime of 250-350 fs is obtained at the ADC(2) level. Although three conical intersections (CIs) (Ethyl. I, Ethyl. II and C[double bond, length as m-dash]O stretching) are relevant to the nonadiabatic decay of keto isocytosine, their contributions to the nonadiabatic decay are highly dependent on the electronic-structure methods employed in the dynamics simulation. The Ethyl. II CI is the main channel in the dynamics simulations at the SA-CASSCF level, while the C[double bond, length as m-dash]O stretching CI becomes dominant at the ADC(2) levels. Other high-level electronic-structure methods (MR-CISD and MS-CASPT2) are involved to benchmark our dynamics results. Through the analysis of the reaction pathways from the ground state minimum to the relevant CIs, we expect that the excited-state dynamical features obtained at the MR-CISD and MS-CASPT2 levels should be very similar to those at the SA-CASSCF level. The comparison of results obtained using different excited-state electronic-structure methods could provide guidance for further studies of similar systems.

This study compares two competing pathways of photoexcitations in gas-phase metal-organic complexes: first, a sequence of phonon-assisted electronic transitions leading to dissipation of the energy of photoexcitations and, second, a sequence of light-driven electronic transitions leading to photolysis. Phonon-assisted charge carrier dynamics is investigated by combination of the density matrix formalism and on-the-fly nonadiabatic couplings. Light-driven fragmentation is modeled by a time-dependent excited-state molecular-dynamics (TDESMD) algorithm based on Rabi theory and principles similar to the trajectory surface hopping approximation. Numerical results indicate that, under the medium intensity of the laser field, light-driven electronic transitions are more probable than phonon-assisted ones. The formation of multiple products is observed in TDESMD trajectories. Simulated mass spectra are extracted from TDESMD simulations and compared to experimental photoionization time-of-flight (PI-TOF) mass spectra. It is found that several features in the experimental mass spectra are reproduced by the simulations.

The effect of non-adiabatic transitions on the F(2P) + CHD3(ν1) → DF + CHD2 and F(2P) + CHD3(ν1) → HF + CD3 reactions is investigated. The dynamics of the nuclei was simulated using trajectory surface hopping and a vibronically and spin-orbit coupled diabatic potential energy matrix. To facilitate the calculations, the fewest switching algorithm of Tully was adapted to the use of a complex diabatic potential energy matrix. For reactions of CHD3 with ground state fluorine atoms, F(2P3/2), the ratio between the previously computed adiabatic cross sections and the non-adiabatic ones was found to range from 1.4 to 2.1. The actual ratio depends on the translational energy and the initial vibrational state of CHD3. The total reactivity of CHD3(ν1 = 1) was found to be always larger than that of CHD3(ν1=0) mainly because of the increase in the cross sections for the HF + CD3 channel. Thus, the inclusion of non-adiabatic transitions in the theoretical treatment cannot resolve the existing disagreement between theory and experiment. Cross sections for the reaction of CHD3 with spin-orbit excited fluorine atoms, F(2P1/2), were found to be significantly smaller than the ones for reaction with F(2P3/2). Fil: Palma, Juliana Isabel. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Manthe, Uwe. Universitat Bielefeld; Alemania

We examine the extent to which the exchange-correlation (XC) approximation influences modeling interfacial charge transfer using fewest-switches surface hopping (FSSH) simulations within the single-particle description. A heterogeneous interface between a lithium ion and an extended boron-nitride sheet was considered here, being an extreme case in which wave function localization and energy level alignments are highly sensitive to the XC approximation. The PBE0 hybrid XC approximation yields nonadiabatic couplings (NACs) that are significantly smaller than the values obtained from the PBE-GGA approximation by an order of magnitude for localized electronic states. This difference between the two XC functionals for the calculated NACs was found to derive mainly from the wave function characteristics rather than from the lattice movement although first-principles molecular dynamics trajectories, along which NACs are obtained, differ noticeably between the two XC functionals. Using the NACs and single-particle energy level alignments at different levels of theory, FSSH simulations were performed to model the electron transfer dynamics at the interface. The electron transfer time scale was found to vary as much as, but not more than, 1 order of magnitude. The time scale was found to be quite sensitive to both NACs and energy level alignments. While the order of magnitude consistency for the charge transfer rate is encouraging even for this rather extreme model of heterojunction interface, continued advancement in electronic structure methods is required for quantitatively accurate determination of the transfer rate.

We investigate the coupled electron-nuclear dynamics in a model system which undergoes dissociation. In choosing different initial conditions, the cases of adiabatic and non-adiabatic dissociation are realized. We treat the coupled electronic and nuclear motion in the complete configuration space so that classically, no surface hopping procedures have to be incorporated in the case that more than a single adiabatic electronic state is populated during the fragmentation. Due to the anharmonic interaction potential, it is expected that classical mechanics substantially deviate from quantum mechanics. However, we provide examples where the densities and fragmentation yields obtained from the two treatments are in astonishingly strong agreement in the case that one starts in the electronic ground state initially. As expected, larger deviations are found if one starts in electronically excited states where trajectories are sampled from the more spatially extended electronic wave function. In that case, higher initial energies are accessed, and the motion proceeds in regions with increasing degree of anharmonicity.

The electronic quenching reaction N((2)D) + N2 → N((4)S) + N2 is studied using the trajectory surface hopping method and employing two doublet and one quartet accurate potential energy surfaces. State-specific properties are analyzed, such as the dependence of the cross section on the initial quantum state of the reactants, vibrational energy transfer, and rovibrational distribution of the product N2 molecule in thermalized conditions. It is found that rotational energy on the reactant N2 molecule is effective in promoting the reaction, whereas vibrational excitation tends to reduce the reaction probability. For initial states and collision energy thermalized in an initial bath, it is found that the products are "hotter", both vibration and rotation wise.

We compare the excited state dynamics of diiodomethane (CH2I2) and bromoiodomethane (CH2BrI) using time resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. A 4.65 eV UV pump pulse launches a dissociative wave packet on excited states of both molecules and the ensuing dynamics are probed via photoionization using a 7.75 eV probe pulse. The resulting photoelectrons are measured with the velocity map imaging technique for each pump-probe delay. Our measurements highlight differences in the dynamics for the two molecules, which are interpreted with high-level ab initio molecular dynamics (trajectory surface hopping) calculations. Our analysis allows us to associate features in the photoelectron spectrum with different portions of the excited state wave packet represented by different trajectories. The excited state dynamics in bromoiodomethane are simple and can be described in terms of direct dissociation along the C–I coordinate, whereas the dynamics in diiodomethane involve internal conversion and motion along multiple dimensions.

The photodynamics of ethylene has been studied by means of ab initio surface-hopping dynamics using extended multireference configuration interaction wavefunctions. At the highest level, the explicit possibility of excited-state CH dissociation and consideration of the Rydberg π−3s state was included into the electronic wavefunction. The initial dynamics is characterised by the torsional motion and the crossing between the bright π−π * state with S 1, the latter having primarily Rydberg character with only a minor contribution of the repulsive valence π−σ * state. Due to back-rotation to planar structures after 17 fs, part of the population flows into the Rydberg states. The lifetime for this fraction of trajectories is significantly longer than that for the valence population. An analysis of the latter population shows that the decay to the ground state proceeds mainly at the pyramidalised conical intersection. Thus, no major qualitative mechanistic changes as compared to previous dynamics simulations ar...

Rate constants for the electronic quenching reaction N(2D) + N2 → N(4S) + N2 are calculated for temperatures over the range of 240 ≤ T/K ≤ 1000 using an accurate set of three global electronic potential energy surfaces for the N3 system (4A″,2A′, and 2A″). The nuclear motion is treated by running quasiclassical trajectories, incorporating spin-forbidden transitions with the trajectory surface hopping method. The exclusively theoretical results are compared with available experimental data for the reaction and contribute to clarify the discrepancies among them. The rate constants at higher temperatures achieved in the atmosphere, for which no experiments have been performed, are presented for the first time. The impact of the results in atmospheric modeling is analyzed, predicting at what altitudes this reaction will play an important role.

Size and conformation-specific ultraviolet and infrared spectra are used to probe the effects of binding a single water molecule on the close-lying excited states present in a model flexible bichromophore, 1,2-diphenoxyethane (DPOE). The water molecule binds to DPOE asymmetrically, thereby localizing the two electronically excited states on one or the other ring, producing a S1/S2 splitting of 190 cm(-1). Electronic localization is reflected clearly in the OH stretch transitions in the excited states. Since the S2 origin is imbedded in vibronic levels of the S1 manifold, its OH stretch spectrum reflects the vibronic coupling between these levels, producing four OH stretch transitions that are a sum of contributions from S2-localized and S1-localized excited states. The single solvent water molecule thus plays multiple roles, localizing the electronic excitation in the bichromophore, inducing electronic energy transfer between the two rings, and reporting on the state mixing via its OH stretch absorptions.

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroscopy has become an important tool to unravel the excited state properties of complex molecular assemblies, such as biological light harvesting systems. In this work, we propose a method for simulating 2D electronic spectra based on a surface hopping approach. This approach self-consistently describes the interaction between photoactive chromophores and the environment, which allows us to reproduce a spectrally observable dynamic Stokes shift. Through an application to a dimer, the method is shown to also account for correct thermal equilibration of quantum populations, something that is of great importance for processes in the electronic domain. The resulting 2D spectra are found to nicely agree with hierarchy of equations of motion calculations. Contrary to the latter, our method is unrestricted in describing the interaction between the chromophores and the environment, and we expect it to be applicable to a wide variety of molecular systems.

We measured absolute probabilities for vibrational excitation of NO(v = 0) molecules in collisions with a Au(111) surface at an incidence energy of translation of 0.4 eV and surface temperatures between 300 and 1100 K. In addition to previously reported excitation to v = 1 and v = 2, we observed excitation to v = 3. The excitation probabilities exhibit an Arrhenius dependence on surface temperature, indicating that the dominant excitation mechanism is nonadiabatic coupling to electron-hole pairs. The experimental data are analyzed in terms of a recently introduced kinetic model, which was extended to include four vibrational states. We describe a subpopulation decomposition of the kinetic model, which allows us to examine vibrational population transfer pathways. The analysis indicates that sequential pathways (v = 0 → 1 → 2 and v = 0 → 1 → 2 → 3) alone cannot adequately describe production of v = 2 or 3. In addition, we performed first-principles molecular dynamics calculations that incorporate electronically nonadiabatic dynamics via an independent electron surface hopping (IESH) algorithm, which requires as input an ab initio potential energy hypersurface (PES) and nonadiabatic coupling matrix elements, both obtained from density functional theory (DFT). While the IESH-based simulations reproduce the v = 1 data well, they slightly underestimate the excitation probabilities for v = 2, and they significantly underestimate those for v = 3. Furthermore, this implementation of IESH appears to overestimate the importance of sequential energy transfer pathways. We make several suggestions concerning ways to improve this IESH-based model. peerReviewed

The photo dissociation of nitrosyl fluorite, FONO, a potential source of atmospheric fluorine, underlies its active role in ozone depletion and other activities in the troposphere. In the present work, the electronic structure of FONO is revisited at high level of ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) theoretical levels. Several different post SCF methods were used to compute excited states, vertical excitation energies and intensities, namely configuration interaction with single excitations (CIS), equation of motion coupled cluster with single and double excitations (EOM-CCSD), and symmetry adopted cluster configuration interaction (SAC-CI) methods. The potential energy functions along two internal coordinates, namely the F-ONO bond and the FONO dihedral angle, have been computed on the ground state relaxed potential energy surface (PES) for the ground, 5A′ and 5A″ excited states using the EOM-CCSD method. In the gas phase, the decay of the excited states of FONO was examined closely by calculating the UV photoabsorption cross-section spectrum and by nonadiabatic dynamics simulations. Nonadiabatic dynamics were simulated by sampling 300 trajectories in two spectral windows at 3.0 ± 0.25 and 4.5 ± 0.25 eV using the surface hopping method. Two different photodissociation reaction pathways with two main products, including multifragmentation (FO+NO) and atomic elimination (F) mechanisms were identified. For the cis-isomer, the main photochemical channel is F+NO2, representing 67% of all processes. For the trans-isomer, however, the main dissociation pathway is (FO+NO).

New ab initio surface hopping simulations of the excited state dynamics of CS$_2$ including spin-orbit coupling are compared to new experimental measurements using a multiphoton ionisation probe in a photoelectron spectroscopy experiment. The calculations highlight the importance of the triplet states even in the very early time dynamics of the dissociation process and allow us to unravel the signatures in the experimental spectrum, linking the observed changes to both electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom within the molecule.

We report ab initio excited-state dynamics simulations on isolated thymine to investigate the mechanism of intersystem crossing, based on CASSCF potential energy surfaces and the Sharc surface hopping method. We show that even though S 2 → S 1 internal conversion is not described accurately with CASSCF, intersystem crossing can be correctly simulated. Intersystem crossing in thymine occurs from the S 1 ( 1 n π ∗ ) minimum, via a nearby crossing with T 2 ( 3 π π ∗ ). The system further relaxes via ultrafast internal conversion in the triplet manifold to the T 1 ( 3 π π ∗ ) state. The simulations reveal that, once the system is trapped in the 1 n π ∗ minimum, intersystem crossing might proceed with a time constant of 1 ps. Furthermore, the change of the system’s electronic state is accompanied respectively by elongation/shortening of specific bonds, which could thus be used as indicators to identify which state is populated in the dynamics.

The effect of nonadiabatic transitions on branching ratios, kinetic and internal energy distribution of fragments, and reaction mechanisms observed in acetaldehyde photodissociation is investigated by nonadiabatic molecular dynamics (NAMD) simulations using time-dependent hybrid density functional theory and Tully surface hopping. Homolytic bond breaking is approximately captured by allowing spin symmetry to break. The NAMD simulations reveal that nonadiabatic transitions selectively enhance the kinetic energy of certain internal degrees of freedom within approximately 50 fs. Branching ratios from NAMD and conventional "hot" Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) are similar and qualitatively agree with experiment. However, as opposed to the BOMD simulations, NAMD captures the high-energy tail of the experimental kinetic energy distribution. The extra "kick" of the nuclei in the direction of the nonadiabatic coupling vector results from nonadiabatic transitions close to conical intersections. From a mechanistic perspective, the nonadiabatic effects favor asynchronous over synchronous fragmentation and tend to suppress roaming.

The OCS photodissociation dynamics of the dominant S((1)D2) channel near 214 nm have been studied using velocity map ion imaging. We report a CO vibrational branching ratio of 0.79:0.21 for v = 0:v = 1, indicating substantially higher vibrational excitation than that observed at slightly longer wavelengths. The CO rotational distribution is bimodal for both v = 0 and v = 1, although the bimodality is less pronounced than at longer wavelengths. Vector correlations, including rotational alignment, indicate that absorption to both the 2(1)A' (A) and 1(1)A″ (B) states is important in the lower-j part of the rotational distribution, while only 2(1)A' state absorption contributes to the upper part; this conclusion is consistent with work at longer wavelengths. Classical trajectory calculations including surface hopping reproduce the measured CO rotational distributions and their dependence on wavelength well, though they underestimate the v = 1 population. The calculations indicate that the higher-j peak in the rotational distribution arises from molecules that begin on the 2(1)A' state but make nonadiabatic transitions to the 1(1)A' (X) state during the dissociation, while the lower-j peak arises from direct photodissociation on either the 2(1)A' or the 1(1)A″ states, as found in previous work.

International audience; We analyze the role of the spin-orbit (SO) coupling in the dissociative dynamics of excited alkali atoms at the surface of small rare gas clusters. The electronic structure of the whole system is deduced from a one-electron model based on core polarization pseudo-potentials. It allows us to obtain in the same footing the energy, forces, and non-adiabatic couplings used to simulate the dynamics by means of a surface hopping method. The fine structure state population is analyzed by considering the relative magnitude of the SO coupling ξ, with respect to the spin-free potential energy. We identify three regimes of ξ-values leading to different evolution of adiabatic state population after excitation of the system in the uppermost state of the lowest np 2P shell. For sufficiently small ξ, the final population of the J=12 atomic states, P12, grows up linearly from P12=13 at ξ = 0 after a diabatic dynamics. For large values of ξ, we observe a rather adiabatic dynamics with P12 decreasing as ξ increases. For intermediate values of ξ, the coupling is extremely efficient and a complete transfer of population is observed for the set of parameters associated to NaAr3 and NaAr4 clusters.