Resonance Raman spectroscopy of the S1 and S2 states of pyrazine: Experiment and first principles calculation of spectra.

New experimental and theoretical data on the resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy of the S1 and S2 states of pyrazine are presented. Based on recent ab initio CASSCF (complete- active-space-self-consistent-field) and MRCI (multireference configuration interaction) calculations of Woywod et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 100, 1400 (1994)], we construct a vibronic coupling model of the conically intersecting S1 and S2 states of pyrazine, which includes the seven most relevant vibrational degrees of freedom of the molecule. Employing a time-dependent approach that treats the intramolecular couplings in a nonperturbative manner, we calculate RR cross sections for this model, taking explicitly into account the nonseparability of all vibrational modes. The combination of high-level ab initio calculations and multimode propagation techniques makes it possible, for the first time, to make first-principles predictions of RR spectra for vibronically coupled electronic states of an aromatic molecule. The theoretical data are compared to experimental gas-phase RR spectra which have been obtained for five different excitation wavelengths. The comparison reveals that the ab initio predictions match the experimental results in almost every detail. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]