Sudden Polarization in the Zwitterionic Z1Excited States of Organic Intermediates. Photochemical Implications

Intramolecular charge transfer and the function of vibronic excitons in photosynthetic light harvesting

A widely discussed explanation for the prevalence of pairs or clusters of closely spaced electronic chromophores in photosynthetic light-harvesting proteins is the presence of ultrafast and highly directional excitation energy transfer pathways mediated by vibronic excitons, the delocalized optical excitations derived from mixing of the electronic and vibrational states of the chromophores. We discuss herein the hypothesis that internal conversion processes between exciton states on the <100 fs timescale are possible when the excitonic potential energy surfaces are controlled by the vibrational modes that induce charge transfer character in a strongly coupled system of chromophores. We discuss two examples, the peridinin-chlorophyll protein from marine dinoflagellates and the intact phycobilisome from cyanobacteria, in which the intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) character arising from out-of-plane distortion of the conjugation of carotenoid or bilin chromophores also results in localization of the initially delocalized optical excitation on the vibrational timescale. Tuning of the ground state conformations of the chromophores to manipulate their ICT character provides a natural photoregulatory mechanism, which would control the overall quantum yield of excitation energy transfer by turning on and off the delocalized character of the optical excitations.

Performance Tests of the Second-Order Approximate Internally Contracted Multireference Coupled-Cluster Singles and Doubles Method icMRCC2

Benchmark results are presented for the second-order approximation of the internally contracted multireference coupled-cluster method with single and double excitations, icMRCC2 [Köhn, Bargholz, J. Chem. Phys. 2019, 151, 041106], which was designed as a multireference analogue of the single-reference second-order approximate coupled-cluster method CC2 [Christiansen, Koch, Jørgensen, Chem. Phys. Lett. 1995, 243, 409-418]. Vertical excitation energies of various small to medium-sized organic molecules are investigated based on established test sets from the literature. Additionally, the spectroscopic constants of ground and excited states of diatomics and the geometric parameters of excited triatomic molecules were determined and compared to the experimental data. The results show that the method clearly extends the applicability of single-reference CC2, including doubly excited states, and also artifacts of CC2 like too low Rydberg excitations and too weak multiple bonds are eliminated. The method is computationally more demanding than standard multireference second-order perturbation theories but improves significantly in accuracy, as shown by the benchmark results. In addition, it is demonstrated that small active spaces are often sufficient to obtain accurate energies with icMRCC2. Example applications like the automerization of cyclobutadiene, the deactivation pathway of ethylene, and the excited states of an iron complex with a noninnocent nitrosyl ligand demonstrate the potential of icMRCC2 in cases with strong multireference character.

Toward a Formyl-to-Phenyl Conversion: An Unexpected Photochemical Fulvene Rearrangement

Toward a conversion of aldehydes into arenes, we designed a sequence involving the initial reaction of an aldehyde to give a fulvene, followed by photochemical and platinum-catalyzed rearrangements into a Dewar benzene derivative, which finally isomerizes into the targeted arene. While computational studies support the plausibility of this route, we found that fulvene irradiation resulted in an unexpected isomerization into a spiro[2.4]heptadiene. This unusual photorearrangement has been investigated mechanistically and provides access to a variety of spiro[2.4]heptadienes with different substituents.

Conical Intersections in Solution with Polarizable Embedding: Integral-Exact Direct Reaction Field

A common strategy to exploring the properties and reactivity of complex systems is to use quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) embedding, wherein a QM region is defined and treated with electronic structure theory, and the remainder of the system is treated with a force field. Important to the description of electronic excited states, especially those of charge-transfer character, is the treatment of the coupling between the QM and MM subsystems. The state of the art is to use a polarizable force field for the MM region and mutually couple the QM wavefunction and MM induced dipoles, in addition to the usual electrostatic embedding, yielding a polarizable embedding (QM/MM-Pol) approach. However, we showed previously that current popular QM/MM-Pol approaches exhibit issues of root flipping and/or incorrect descriptions of electronic crossings in multistate calculations [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 14, 2137 (2018)]. Here, we demonstrate a solution to these problems with an integral-exact reformulation of the direct reaction field approach of Thole and Van Duijnen (QM/MM-IEDRF). The resulting embedding potential includes one- and two-electron operators and many-body dipole-induced dipole interactions and thus includes a natural description of the screening of electron-electron interactions by the MM induced dipoles. Pauli repulsion from the environment is mimicked by effective core potentials on the MM atoms. Inherent to the DRF approach is the assumption that MM dipoles respond instantaneously to the positions of the QM electrons; therefore, dispersion interactions are captured approximately. All electronic states are eigenfunctions of the same Hamiltonian, while the polarization induced in the environment and the associated energetic stabilization are unique to each state. This allows for a consistent definition of transition properties and state crossings. We demonstrate QM/MM-IEDRF by exploring the influence of a (polarizable) inert xenon matrix environment on the conical intersection underlying the photoisomerization of ethylene.

E/Z photoisomerization pathway in pristine and fluorinated di(3-furyl)ethenes

We report an XMCQDPT2 study of the E/Z photoisomerization in a series of fluorinated di(3-furyl)ethenes (3DFEs). Upon excitation, pristine and low-fluorinated 3DFE show conventional behavior of many diarylethenes: unhindered twisting motion toward the pyramidalized zwitterionic state where relaxation to the ground state occurs. However, deep fluorination of 3DFEs can hamper E-to-Z isomerization by giving rise to an alternative excited-state relaxation pathway: an out-of-plane motion of a ring fluorine atom. Importantly, the case of fluorinated 3DFEs reveals serious deficiencies of the popular TDDFT approach. With some commonly used exchange-correlation functionals, the alternative relaxation pathway is not reproduced and, moreover, an irrelevant ring rotation coordinate is predicted instead. Nevertheless, TDDFT remains qualitatively adequate for the E-to-Z twisting coordinate taken alone.

A Comparison of Partial Atomic Charges for Electronically Excited States

Partial atomic charges are a useful and intuitive concept for understanding molecular properties and chemical reaction mechanisms, showing how changes in molecular geometry can affect the flow of electronic charge within a molecule. However, the use of partial atomic charges remains relatively uncommon in the characterization of excited-state electronic structure. Here, we show how well-established partial atomic charge methods perform for interatomic, intermolecular, and interbond electron transfer in electronically excited states. Our results demonstrate the utility of real-space partial atomic charges for interpreting the electronic structures that arise in excited-state processes. Furthermore, we show how this analysis can be used to demonstrate that analogous electronic structures arise near photochemically relevant conical intersection regions for several conjugated polyenes. On the basis of our analysis, we find that charges computed using the iterative Hirshfeld approach provide results which are consistent with chemical intuition and are transferable between homologous molecular systems.

Substitution pattern dependent behavior of the singlet excited states in symmetrically fluorinated biphenyls

Biphenyls are important basic chromophore systems that offer a possibility to study the effects of chemical substitution on the lower-lying excited states without complications from photoisomerization or other side processes. For several symmetric biphenyls, pristine biphenyl (bP0), 4,4'-difluorobiphenyl (bP2), 2,3,5,6,2',3',5',6'-octafluorobiphenyl (bP8), and perfluorobiphenyl (bP10), we report stationary and ultrafast solution-phase spectra rationalized with the aid of computations by means of the XMCQDPT2 multi-configuration perturbation theory and TDDFT. Polyfluorination tends to broaden the gap between the nearly degenerate S₁ + S₂ pair of states and the S₃ state in bP8 and bP10, yet relaxation from any sheet of the S₁-S₃ manifold leads through a system of state crossings to the same stationary points in S₁. Unlike bP0 and bP2 where the relaxed excited state is planar and non-polar, excited bP8 and bP10 exhibit sudden polarization to give a symmetry-lowered excited state via pseudo-Jahn-Teller interactions involving S₁ and S₂. Of particular interest is excited bP10 which reveals both sudden polarization and loss of planarity of one phenyl ring. We also demonstrate the unsatisfactory performance of the TDDFT methodology as applied to the biphenyls.

Description of Sudden Polarization in the Excited Electronic States with an Ensemble Density Functional Theory Method

Sudden polarization (SP) is one of the manifestations of electron transfer in the electronically excited states of molecules. Proposed initially to explain the unusual reactivity of photoexcited olefins, SP often occurs in the excited states of molecules possessing strongly correlated diradical ground state. Theoretical description of SP involves mixing between the singly excited and the doubly excited zwitterionic states, which makes it inaccessible with the use of the popular linear-response time-dependent density functional theory methods. In this work, an extended variant of the state-interaction state-averaged spin-restricted ensemble-referenced Kohn-Sham (SI-SA-REKS, or SSR) method is applied to study SP in a number of organic diradical systems. To this end, the analytical derivative formalism is derived and implemented for the SSR(3,2) method (see the main text for explanation of the acronym), which enables the automatic geometry optimization and obtains the relaxed density matrices as well as the electron binding energies and respective Dyson's orbitals. Application of the new method to SP in the lowest singlet excited state of ethylene agrees with the results obtained previously with the use of multireference methods of wavefunction theory. A number of interesting manifestations of SP are observed, such as the charge transfer in photoexcited tetramethyleneethene (TME) diradical mediated by the vibrational motion and conductivity switching in the excited state of a donor-acceptor dyad placed in an external electric field.

Directing excited state dynamics via chemical substitution: A systematic study of π-donors and π-acceptors at a carbon-carbon double bond

Functional group substituents are a ubiquitous tool in ground-state organic chemistry often employed to fine-tune chemical properties and obtain desired chemical reaction outcomes. Their effect on photoexcited electronic states, however, remains poorly understood. To help build an intuition for these effects, we have studied ethylene, substituted with electron acceptor (cyano) and/or electron donor (methoxy) substituents, both theoretically and experimentally: using ab initio quantum molecular dynamics and time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Our results show the consistent trend that photo-induced ethylenic dynamics is primarily localized to the carbon with the greater electron density. For doubly substituted ethylenes, the trend is additive when both substituents are located on opposite carbons, whereas the methoxy group (in concert with steric effects) dominates when both substituents are located on a single carbon atom. These results point to the development of rules for structure-dynamics correlations; in this case, a novel mechanistic ultrafast photochemistry for conjugated carbon chains employing long-established chemical concepts.

Fluorescence Anisotropy Detection of Barrier Crossing and Ultrafast Conformational Dynamics in the S2 State of β-Carotene

Carotenoids are usually only weakly fluorescent despite being very strong absorbers in the mid-visible region because their first two excited singlet states, S₁ and S₂, have very short lifetimes. To probe the structural mechanisms that promote the nonradiative decay of the S₂ state to the S₁ state, we have carried out a series of fluorescence lineshape and anisotropy measurements with a prototype carotenoid, β-carotene, in four aprotic solvents. The anisotropy values observed in the fluorescence emission bands originating from the S₂ and S₁ states reveal that the large internal rotations of the emission transition dipole moment, as much as 50° relative to that of the absorption transition dipole moment, are initiated during ultrafast evolution on the S₂ state potential energy surface and persist upon nonradiative decay to the S₁ state. Electronic structure calculations of the orientation of the transition dipole moment account for the anisotropy results in terms of torsional and pyramidal distortions near the center of the isoprenoid backbone. The excitation wavelength dependence of the fluorescence anisotropy indicates that these out-of-plane conformational motions are initiated by passage over a low-activation energy barrier from the Franck-Condon S₂ structure. This conclusion is consistent with detection over the 80-200 K range of a broad, red-shifted fluorescence band from a dynamic intermediate evolving on a steep gradient of the S₂ state potential energy surface after crossing the activation barrier. The temperature dependence of the oscillator strength and anisotropy indicate that nonadiabatic passage from S₂ through a conical intersection seam to S₁ is promoted by the out-of-plane motions of the isoprenoid backbone with strong hindrance by solvent friction.

Sudden polarization and zwitterion formation as a pseudo-Jahn–Teller effect: a new insight into the photochemistry of alkenes

We show that the intermediates of photochemical reactions—sudden polarization and zwitterion formations—are consequences of the pseudo-Jahn–Teller effect (PJTE), which facilitates a better understanding, rationalization, prediction, and manipulation of the corresponding chemical and biological processes.

Photochemistry of the 1,6-Dideuterio-1,3,5-hexatrienes in Solution: Efficient Terminal Bond Photoisomerization in One-Bond-Twist and Bicycle Pedal Ways

The report that the central bond photoisomerization of the 1,3,5-hexatrienes (Hts) is highly inefficient has encouraged theoreticians to seek conical intersections (CIs) at geometries that can explain rapid nonradiative return to the initially excited isomer. Because they are photochemically silent, torsional relaxations about the terminal double bonds of the Hts have not been evaluated as significant radiationless decay pathways. Study of the photoisomerization of trans,trans,trans- and trans,cis,trans-1,6-dideuterio-1,3,5-hexatrienes ( ttt- and tct-Ht_d2) addresses this issue. Degassed cyclohexane- d₁₂ (C₆D₁₂) and CD₃CN solutions were irradiated at 254 nm in quartz NMR tubes, and the progress of the reactions was followed by ¹H NMR. Photoisomerization rates based on the integration of terminal hydrogen NMR peaks are in reasonable agreement with rates obtained by fitting pure isomer NMR spectra to the phase shift and baseline corrected experimental NMR spectra. The results show that terminal bond isomerization is highly efficient, especially when one considers that central bond isomerization is much more efficient than previously reported and is mainly observed together with terminal bond isomerization. A mechanism involving terminal one-bond-twist (OBT) in competition with a bicycle pedal (BP) process accounts for all terminal and most central bond photoisomerization. OBT central bond isomerization is a minor reaction that is observed primarily in the tct to ttt direction. Most surprising is the prominent role of the BP process in central bond photoisomerization. Proposed initially to account for photoisomerization in free volume constraining media, it is observed here in the absence of medium constraints.

Photoisomerization pathways and Raman activity of 1,1'-difluorostilbene

The photoisomerization of 1,1'-difluorostilbene, following S₀→S₁ optical excitation in solution, was studied with femtosecond broadband transient absorption and stimulated Raman spectroscopy, and by quantum-chemical calculations. In n-hexane, trans-to-cis (t→c) isomerization starts with Franck-Condon relaxation (τ_1t = 0.07 ps) followed by nearly barrierless torsion around the ethylenic bond (τ_2t ≈ 0.3 ps) to a perpendicular conformation P. About 50% of the excited molecules are trapped in P, while others reach the S₁(cis) conformation adiabatically. For the opposite cis-to-trans (c→t) path, the dynamics in n-hexane (τ_1c = 0.04 ps, τ_2c = 0.7 ps) suggest a 5 kJ/mol barrier between the relaxed S₁(cis) and P states. The subsequent P decay with τ₃ = 0.4 ps is followed by much slower ground-state recovery (τ₄ ≈ 3 ps), indicating an intermediate state X. The t→P and c→P torsion depend on solvent viscosity and polarity, whereas the P→X→S₀ relaxation and residual torsion is viscosity-independent but still polarity-dependent. Photoisomerization yields are derived from the transient absorption data and compared to those from actinometric measurements. Low-frequency oscillations in the transient signal are assigned to nuclei motions. Transient and stationary stimulated Raman spectra are compared to calculations. Early Franck-Condon Raman spectra differ from those of the quasistationary trans or cis S₁ state. The photoisomerization behavior of stilbene and vinyl-substituted derivatives is compared and the general features are discussed.

Tuning Stilbene Photochemistry by Fluorination: State Reordering Leads to Sudden Polarization near the Franck-Condon Region

Spontaneous polarization of a nonpolar molecule upon photoexcitation (the sudden polarization effect) earlier discussed for 90°-twisted alkenes is observed and calculated for planar ring-fluorinated stilbenes, trans-2,3,5,6,2',3',5',6'-octofluorostilbene (tF2356) and trans-2,3,4,5,6,2',3',4',5',6'-decafluorostilbene (tF23456). Due to the fluorination, Franck-Condon states S₁^FC and S₂^FC are dominated by the quasi-degenerate HOMO-1 → LUMO and HOMO-2 → LUMO excitations, while their interaction gives rise to a symmetry-broken zwitterionic S₁ state. After optical excitation of tF2356, one observes an ultrafast (∼0.06 ps) evolution that reflects relaxation from initial nonpolar S₃^FC to long-lived (1.3 ns in n-hexane and 3.4 ns in acetonitrile) polar S₁. The polarity of S₁ is evidenced by a solvatochromic shift of its fluorescence band. The experimental results provide a sensitive test for quantum-chemical calculations. In particular, our calculations agree with the experiment, and raise concerns about the applicability of the common TDDFT approach to relatively simple stilbenic systems.

Many-Molecule Reaction Triggered by a Single Photon in Polaritonic Chemistry

The second law of photochemistry states that, in most cases, no more than one molecule is activated for an excited-state reaction for each photon absorbed by a collection of molecules. In this Letter, we demonstrate that it is possible to trigger a many-molecule reaction using only one photon by strongly coupling the molecular ensemble to a confined light mode. The collective nature of the resulting hybrid states of the system (the so-called polaritons) leads to the formation of a polaritonic "supermolecule" involving the degrees of freedom of all molecules, opening a reaction path on which all involved molecules undergo a chemical transformation. We theoretically investigate the system conditions for this effect to take place and be enhanced.

Excitation Energy Transfer by Coherent and Incoherent Mechanisms in the Peridinin-Chlorophyll a Protein

Excitation energy transfer from peridinin to chlorophyll (Chl) a is unusually efficient in the peridinin-chlorophyll a protein (PCP) from dinoflagellates. This enhanced performance is derived from the long intrinsic lifetime of 4.4 ps for the S₂ (1¹B_u⁺) state of peridinin in PCP, which arises from the electron-withdrawing properties of its carbonyl substituent. Results from heterodyne transient grating spectroscopy indicate that S₂ serves as the donor for two channels of energy transfer: a 30 fs process involving quantum coherence and delocalized peridinin-Chl states and an incoherent, 2.5 ps process initiated by dynamic exciton localization, which accompanies the formation of a conformationally distorted intermediate in 45 fs. The lifetime of the S₂ state is lengthened in PCP by its intramolecular charge-transfer character, which increases the system-bath coupling and slows the torsional motions that promote nonradiative decay to the S₁ (2¹A_g^-) state.

Suppressing photochemical reactions with quantized light fields

Photoisomerization, that is, a photochemical reaction leading to a change of molecular structure after absorption of a photon, can have detrimental effects such as leading to DNA damage under solar irradiation, or as a limiting factor for the efficiency of solar cells. Here, we show that strong coupling of organic molecules to a confined light mode can be used to strongly suppress photoisomerization, as well as other photochemical reactions, and thus convert molecules that normally show fast photodegradation into photostable forms. We find this to be especially efficient in the case of collective strong coupling, where the distribution of a single excitation over many molecules and the light mode leads to a collective protection effect that almost completely suppresses the photochemical reaction.

Perpendicular State of an Electronically Excited Stilbene: Observation by Femtosecond-Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy

In the photoisomerization path of stilbene, a perpendicular state P on the S₁ potential energy surface is expected just before internal conversion through a conical intersection S₁/S₀. For decades the observation of P was thwarted by a short lifetime τ_P in combination with slow population flow over a barrier. But these limitations can be overcome by ethylenic substitution. Following optical excitation of trans-1,1'-dicyanostilbene, P is populated significantly (τ_P = 27 ps in n-hexane) and monitored by an exited-state absorption band at 370 nm. Here we report stimulated Raman lines of P. The strongest, at 1558 cm^-1, is attributed to stretching vibrations of the phenyl rings. Transient electronic states, resonance conditions, and corresponding Raman signals are discussed.

Torsional Dynamics and Intramolecular Charge Transfer in the S2 (1(1)Bu(+)) Excited State of Peridinin: A Mechanism for Enhanced Mid-Visible Light Harvesting

Of the carotenoids known in photosynthetic organisms, peridinin exhibits one of the highest quantum efficiencies for excitation energy transfer to chlorophyll (Chl) a acceptors. The mechanism for this enhanced performance involves an order-of-magnitude slowing of the S2 (1(1)Bu(+)) → S1 (2(1)Ag(-)) nonradiative decay pathway compared to carotenoids lacking carbonyl substitution. Using femtosecond transient grating spectroscopy with optical heterodyne detection, we have obtained the first evidence that the nonradiative decay of the S2 state of peridinin is promoted by large-amplitude torsional motions. The decay of an intermediate state termed Sx, which we assign to a twisted form of the S2 state, is substantially slowed by solvent friction in peridinin due to its intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) character.

Decay dynamics of α,β-carboxylic methyl esters (CH3OCOCH:CHR) in the lower-lying excited states--resonance Raman and complete active space self-consistent field calculation study

The photophysics of two α,β-carboxylic methyl esters after excitation to the light absorbing S2(ππ(*)) state were studied by using the resonance Raman spectroscopy and complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method calculations. The vibrational spectra were assigned on the basis of the experimental measurements and the B3LYP/6-31G(d) computations, as well as the normal mode analysis. The A-band resonance Raman spectra of methyl 2,4-pentadienoate (M24PDA) and methyl trans cronoate (MTCA) were measured to probe the structural dynamics in Franck-Condon region. CASSCF calculations were done to obtain the minimal excitation energies and geometric structures of the lower-lying singlet and triplet excited states, and the curve-crossing points. It was revealed that the short-time structural dynamics of M24PDA was dominated by the Cα=Cβ-C4=C5 stretch coordinate, while that of MTCA was mostly along the Cα=Cβ and the C=O stretch motion. Comparison of the structural dynamics of M24PDA and MTCA with that of 3-methyl-3-pentene-2-one (3M3P2O) indicated that the structural dynamics of MTCA is similar to that of 3M3P2O but different than that of M24PDA in that the variation of the Raman intensity ratios for ν7/ν8, (ν7+ν8)/2ν8, (ν7+2ν8)/3ν8, (ν7+3ν8)/4ν8 of MTCA is similar to that of 3M3P2O but different from that of M24PDA. It is found that the substitution of methyl group in the α(')-position of α,β-enones by methoxyl group does not substantially affect the short-time structural dynamics, while the substitution of vinyl group in the β-position changes significantly the short-time structural dynamics and the subsequent decay processes. A detailed decay mechanism is proposed. Two sub-processes which consider the reconjugation and the subsequent charge-transfer reaction of O=C-Cα=Cβ chromophore were postulated to describe the variation of short-time structural dynamics with the different substitution.

A multireference configuration interaction study of the photodynamics of nitroethylene

Extended multireference configuration interaction with singles and doubles (MR-CISD) calculations of nitroethylene (H₂C=CHNO₂) were carried out to investigate the photodynamical deactivation paths to the ground state. The ground (S₀) and the first five valence excited electronic states (S₁–S₅) were investigated. In the first step, vertical excitations and potential energy curves for CH₂ and NO₂ torsions and CH₂ out-of-plane bending starting from the ground state geometry were computed. Afterward, five conical intersections, one between each pair of adjacent states, were located. The vertical calculations mostly confirm the previous assignment of experimental spectrum and theoretical results using lower-level calculations. The conical intersections have as main features the torsion of the CH₂ moiety, different distortions of the NO₂ group and CC, CN, and NO bond stretchings. In these conical intersections, the NO₂ group plays an important role, also seen in excited state investigations of other nitro molecules. Based on the conical intersections found, a photochemical nonradiative deactivation process after a π–π* excitation to the bright S₅ state is proposed. In particular, the possibility of NO₂ release in the ground state, an important property in nitro explosives, was found to be possible.

Photoisomerization of Stilbene: The Detailed XMCQDPT2 Treatment

We report the detailed XMCQDPT2/cc-pVTZ study of trans-cis photoisomerization in one of the core systems of both experimental and computational photochemistry-the stilbene molecule. For the first time, the potential energy surface (PES) of the S1 state has been directly optimized and scanned using a multistate multiconfiguration second-order perturbation theory. We characterize the trans-stilbene, pyramidalized (phantom), and DHP-cis-stilbene geometric domains of the S1 state and describe their stationary points including the transition states between them, as well as S1/S0 intersections. Also reported are the minima and the activation barriers in the ground state. Our calculations correctly predict the kinetic isotope effect due to H/D exchange at ethylenic hydrogens, the dynamic behavior of excited cis-stilbene, and trans-cis branching ratio after relaxation to S0 through a rather unsymmetric conical intersection. In general, the XMCQDPT2 results confirm the qualitative adequacy of the TDDFT (especially SF-TDDFT) picture of the excited stilbene but also reveal quantitative discrepancies that deserve further exploration.

Excited state structural dynamics and Herzberg-Teller coupling of tetraphenylporphine explored via resonance Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation

Resonance Raman spectra of free-base tetraphenylporphine (TPP) were obtained with 397.9, 416, and 435.7nm excitation wavelengths and density functional calculations were done to elucidate the electronic transitions and the resonance Raman spectra (RRs) of TPP. The RRs indicate that the Franck-Condon region photodynamics for S(0)-->S(4) electronic state is predominantly along the C(m)-ph stretch while that for S(0)-->S(3) electronic state is predominantly along the porphin ring C(beta)C(beta) stretch. Non-totally symmetric vibrational modes were regularly presented in resonance Raman spectra: the shorter the excitation wavelengths were, the stronger intensity the modes had, which can be interpreted in terms of electric dipole transition moments caused by Franck-Condon and Herzberg-Teller coupling. Four non-total symmetry vibrational mode upsilon(52,)upsilon(64), upsilon(97) and upsilon(130) in A(2) irreducible representative of TPP were observed in 397.9, 416 and 435.7nm resonance Raman spectrum. With the shorter wavelength laser excitations at 416 or 397.9nm, the A(2) vibrational modes show more enhanced Raman intensity by comparison with those in the TPP spectrum excited at 435.7nm.

Excitation energies from spin-restricted ensemble-referenced Kohn-Sham method: a state-average approach

A time-independent density functional approach to the calculation of excitation energies from the ground states of molecules typified by the strong nondynamic electron correlation is suggested. The new method is based on the use of the spin-restricted ensemble-referenced Kohn-Sham formalism [Filatov, M.; Shaik, S. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1999, 304, 429] for the calculation of the ground state. In the new method, the average energy of the ground state and a state created by a single excitation thereof is minimized with respect to the Kohn-Sham orbitals and their fractional occupation numbers. The lowest singlet excitation energies obtained with the help of the new formalism for a number of model systems, such as the hydrogen molecule with stretched bond, twisted ethylene, and twisted hexa-1,3,5-triene, are compared with the results of the time-dependent density functional theory, with the results of ab initio CASSCF/CASPT2 calculations, and with the experimental data. Applicability of the new method to the description of photochemical reactions is discussed.

Ab initio diradical/zwitterionic polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities in twisted double bonds

We investigated the nature of the ground state and static response properties (mu, alpha, and beta) for a promising class of twisted pi-electron system nonlinear optical chromophores at the HF, B3LYP, MP2, and CASSCF levels. We report results for a substituted twisted ethylene and a larger tictoid analogue. Previous work has reported only a zwitterionic character for such tictoid species, however, (14,13) CASSCF calculations predict a ground-state diradical. At the HF, B3LYP, MP2, and (14,13) CASSCF levels, the values of beta are orders of magnitude smaller than those predicted by semiempirical methods.

Isomerization Through Conical Intersections

The standard model for photoinduced cis-trans isomerization about carbon double bonds is framed in terms of two electronic states and a one-dimensional reaction coordinate. We review recent work that suggests that a minimal picture of the reaction mechanism requires the consideration of at least two molecular coordinates and three electronic states. In this chapter, we emphasize the role of conical intersections and charge transfer in the photoisomerization mechanism.

Can the Nonadiabatic Photodynamics of Aminopyrimidine Be a Model for the Ultrafast Deactivation of Adenine?

The reaction path for the ultrafast deactivation of 6-aminopyrimidine (6AP) has been investigated by means of ab initio surface-hopping dynamics. The electronic vertical excitation spectrum, excited-state S1 minima, and minima on the crossing seam of 6AP resemble well those found for adenine. The deactivation from the S1 to the S0 state takes place at the ultrafast time scale of 400 fs and involves the out-of-plane ring deformation of the C4 atom, a position that is sterically restricted in adenine by the imidazole ring. Mechanical restrictions have been used to simulate in a simple way the role of the imidazole group in adenine. As a result, deactivation via out-of-plane ring deformation of the C2 and N3 atoms are observed in good agreement with predictions for adenine. These dynamics results show that the previously suggested ring puckering deactivation paths really exist at a time scale, which is compatible with experimentally observed life times. The electronic structure of the crossing seam has been shown to have the same nature as those of simple biradicaloid systems, a feature which seems to be valid for any cyclic system.