A Gaussian Wave Packet Propagation Approach to Vibrationally Resolved Optical Spectra at Non-Zero Temperatures

A time averaged semiclassical approach to IR spectroscopy

We propose a new semiclassical approach to the calculation of molecular IR spectra. The method employs the time averaging technique of Kaledin and Miller upon symmetrization of the quantum dipole-dipole autocorrelation function. Spectra at high and low temperatures are investigated. In the first case, we are able to point out the possible presence of hot bands in the molecular absorption line shape. In the second case, we are able to reproduce accurate IR spectra as demonstrated by a calculation of the IR spectrum of the water molecule, which is within 4% of the exact intensity. Our time averaged IR spectra can be directly compared to time averaged semiclassical power spectra as shown in an application to the CO2 molecule, which points out the differences between IR and power spectra and demonstrates that our new approach can identify active IR transitions correctly. Overall, the method features excellent accuracy in calculating absorption intensities and provides estimates for the frequencies of vibrations in agreement with the corresponding power spectra. In perspective, this work opens up the possibility to interface the new method with the semiclassical techniques developed for power spectra, such as the divide-and-conquer one, to get accurate IR spectra of complex and high-dimensional molecular systems.

Finite-temperature vibronic spectra from the split-operator coherence thermofield dynamics

We present a numerically exact approach for evaluating vibrationally resolved electronic spectra at finite temperatures using the coherence thermofield dynamics. In this method, which avoids implementing an algorithm for solving the von Neumann equation for coherence, the thermal vibrational ensemble is first mapped to a pure-state wavepacket in an augmented space, and this wavepacket is then propagated by solving the standard, zero-temperature Schrödinger equation with the split-operator Fourier method. We show that the finite-temperature spectra obtained with the coherence thermofield dynamics in a Morse potential agree exactly with those computed by Boltzmann-averaging the spectra of individual vibrational levels. Because the split-operator thermofield dynamics on a full tensor-product grid is restricted to low-dimensional systems, we briefly discuss how the accessible dimensionality can be increased by various techniques developed for the zero-temperature split-operator Fourier method.

Machine Learning for Absorption Cross Sections

We present a machine learning (ML) method to accelerate the nuclear ensemble approach (NEA) for computing absorption cross sections. ML-NEA is used to calculate cross sections on vast ensembles of nuclear geometries to reduce the error due to insufficient statistical sampling. The electronic properties-excitation energies and oscillator strengths-are calculated with a reference electronic structure method only for a relatively few points in the ensemble. The KREG model (kernel-ridge-regression-based ML combined with the RE descriptor) as implemented in MLatom is used to predict these properties for the remaining tens of thousands of points in the ensemble without incurring much of additional computational cost. We demonstrate for two examples, benzene and a 9-dicyanomethylene derivative of acridine, that ML-NEA can produce statistically converged cross sections even for very challenging cases and even with as few as several hundreds of training points.

On-the-fly ab initio semiclassical evaluation of vibronic spectra at finite temperature

To compute and analyze vibrationally resolved electronic spectra at zero temperature, we have recently implemented the on-the-fly ab initio extended thawed Gaussian approximation [A. Patoz et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9, 2367 (2018)], which accounts for anharmonicity, mode-mode coupling, and Herzberg-Teller effects. Here, we generalize this method in order to evaluate spectra at non-zero temperature. In line with thermo-field dynamics, we transform the von Neumann evolution of the coherence component of the density matrix to the Schrödinger evolution of a wavefunction in an augmented space with twice as many degrees of freedom. Due to the efficiency of the extended thawed Gaussian approximation, this increase in the number of coordinates results in nearly no additional computational cost. More specifically, compared to the original, zero-temperature approach, the finite-temperature method requires no additional ab initio electronic structure calculations. At the same time, the new approach allows for a clear distinction among finite-temperature, anharmonicity, and Herzberg-Teller effects on spectra. We show, on a model Morse system, the advantages of the finite-temperature thawed Gaussian approximation over the commonly used global harmonic methods and apply it to evaluate the symmetry-forbidden absorption spectrum of benzene, where all of the aforementioned effects contribute.

On the origin of the shift between vertical excitation and band maximum in molecular photoabsorption

The analysis of the photoabsorption spectra of molecules shows that the band maximum is usually redshifted in comparison to the vertical excitation. We conducted a throughout analysis of this shift based on low-dimensional analytical and numerical model systems, showing that its origin is rooted in the frequency change between the ground and the excited states in multidimensional systems. Moreover, we deliver a benchmark of ab initio results for the shift based on a comparison of vertical excitations and band maxima calculated with the nuclear ensemble approach for the 28 organic molecules in the Mülheim molecular dataset. The mean value of the shift calculated over 60 transitions is 0.11 ± 0.08 eV. The mean value of the band width is 0.32 ± 0.14 eV.

Graphical abstract

Semiclassical Approach to Photophysics Beyond Kasha's Rule and Vibronic Spectroscopy Beyond the Condon Approximation. The Case of Azulene

Azulene is a prototypical molecule with an anomalous fluorescence from the second excited electronic state, thus violating Kasha's rule, and with an emission spectrum that cannot be understood within the Condon approximation. To better understand the photophysics and spectroscopy of azulene and other nonconventional molecules, we developed a systematic, general, and efficient computational approach combining the semiclassical dynamics of nuclei with ab initio electronic structure. First, to analyze the nonadiabatic effects, we complement the standard population dynamics by a rigorous measure of adiabaticity, estimated with the multiple-surface dephasing representation. Second, we propose a new semiclassical method for simulating non-Condon spectra, which combines the extended thawed Gaussian approximation with the efficient single-Hessian approach. S₁ ← S₀ and S₂ ← S₀ absorption and S₂ → S₀ emission spectra of azulene, recorded in a new set of experiments, agree very well with our calculations. We find that accuracy of the evaluated spectra requires the treatment of anharmonicity, Herzberg-Teller, and mode-mixing effects.