Modeling, calculating, and analyzing multidimensional vibrational spectroscopies

Artificial-Intelligence-Based Surrogate Solution of Dissipative Quantum Dynamics: Physics-Informed Reconstruction of the Universal Propagator

The accurate (or even approximate) solution of the equations that govern the dynamics of dissipative quantum systems remains a challenging task in quantum science. While several algorithms have been designed to solve those equations with different degrees of flexibility, they rely mainly on highly expensive iterative schemes. Most recently, deep neural networks have been used for quantum dynamics, but current architectures are highly dependent on the physics of the particular system and usually limited to population dynamics. Here we introduce an artificial-intelligence-based surrogate model that solves dissipative quantum dynamics by parametrizing quantum propagators as Fourier neural operators, which we train using both data set and physics-informed loss functions. Compared with conventional algorithms, our quantum neural propagator avoids time-consuming iterations and provides a universal superoperator that can be used to evolve any initial quantum state for arbitrarily long times. To illustrate the wide applicability of the approach, we employ our quantum neural propagator to compute the population dynamics and time-correlation functions of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex.

Experimental Access to Mode-Specific Coupling between Quantum Molecular Vibrations and Classical Bath Modes

The interaction of quantum-mechanical systems with a fluctuating thermal environment (bath) is fundamental to molecular mechanics and energy transport/dissipation. Its complete picture requires mode-specific measurements of this interaction and an understanding of its nature. Here, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study providing detailed insights into the coupling between a high-frequency vibrational two-level system and thermally excited terahertz modes. Experimentally, two-dimensional terahertz-infrared-visible spectroscopy reports directly on the coupling between quantum oscillators represented by CH3 streching vibrations in liquid dimethyl sulfoxide and distinct low-frequency modes. Theoretically, we present a mixed quantum-classical formalism of the sample response to enable the simultaneous quantum description of high-frequency oscillators and a classical description of the bath. We derive the strength and nature of interaction and find different coupling between CH3 stretch and low-frequency modes. This general approach enables quantitative and mode-specific analysis of coupled quantum and classical dynamics in complex chemical systems.

The hierarchy of Davydov's Ansätze: From guesswork to numerically "exact" many-body wave functions

This Perspective presents an overview of the development of the hierarchy of Davydov's Ansätze and a few of their applications in many-body problems in computational chemical physics. Davydov's solitons originated in the investigation of vibrational energy transport in proteins in the 1970s. Momentum-space projection of these solitary waves turned up to be accurate variational ground-state wave functions for the extended Holstein molecular crystal model, lending unambiguous evidence to the absence of formal quantum phase transitions in Holstein systems. The multiple Davydov Ansätze have been proposed, with increasing Ansatz multiplicity, as incremental improvements of their single-Ansatz parents. For a given Hamiltonian, the time-dependent variational formalism is utilized to extract accurate dynamic and spectroscopic properties using Davydov's Ansätze as its trial states. A quantity proven to disappear for large multiplicities, the Ansatz relative deviation is introduced to quantify how closely the Schrödinger equation is obeyed. Three finite-temperature extensions to the time-dependent variation scheme are elaborated, i.e., the Monte Carlo importance sampling, the method of thermofield dynamics, and the method of displaced number states. To demonstrate the versatility of the methodology, this Perspective provides applications of Davydov's Ansätze to the generalized Holstein Hamiltonian, variants of the spin-boson model, and systems of cavity-assisted singlet fission, where accurate dynamic and spectroscopic properties of the many-body systems are given by the Davydov trial states.

Discretized hierarchical equations of motion in mixed Liouville-Wigner space for two-dimensional vibrational spectroscopies of liquid water

A model of a bulk water system describing the vibrational motion of intramolecular and intermolecular modes is constructed, enabling analysis of its linear and nonlinear vibrational spectra as well as the energy transfer processes between the vibrational modes. The model is described as a system of four interacting anharmonic oscillators nonlinearly coupled to their respective heat baths. To perform a rigorous numerical investigation of the non-Markovian and nonperturbative quantum dissipative dynamics of the model, we derive discretized hierarchical equations of motion in mixed Liouville-Wigner space, with Lagrange-Hermite mesh discretization being employed in the Liouville space of the intramolecular modes and Lagrange-Hermite mesh discretization and Hermite discretization in the Wigner space of the intermolecular modes. One-dimensional infrared and Raman spectra and two-dimensional terahertz-infrared-visible and infrared-infrared-Raman spectra are computed as demonstrations of the quantum dissipative description provided by our model.

Equation-of-Motion Methods for the Calculation of Femtosecond Time-Resolved 4-Wave-Mixing and N-Wave-Mixing Signals

Femtosecond nonlinear spectroscopy is the main tool for the time-resolved detection of photophysical and photochemical processes. Since most systems of chemical interest are rather complex, theoretical support is indispensable for the extraction of the intrinsic system dynamics from the detected spectroscopic responses. There exist two alternative theoretical formalisms for the calculation of spectroscopic signals, the nonlinear response-function (NRF) approach and the spectroscopic equation-of-motion (EOM) approach. In the NRF formalism, the system-field interaction is assumed to be sufficiently weak and is treated in lowest-order perturbation theory for each laser pulse interacting with the sample. The conceptual alternative to the NRF method is the extraction of the spectroscopic signals from the solutions of quantum mechanical, semiclassical, or quasiclassical EOMs which govern the time evolution of the material system interacting with the radiation field of the laser pulses. The NRF formalism and its applications to a broad range of material systems and spectroscopic signals have been comprehensively reviewed in the literature. This article provides a detailed review of the suite of EOM methods, including applications to 4-wave-mixing and N-wave-mixing signals detected with weak or strong fields. Under certain circumstances, the spectroscopic EOM methods may be more efficient than the NRF method for the computation of various nonlinear spectroscopic signals.

Effect of mixed Frenkel and charge transfer states in time-gated fluorescence spectra of perylene bisimides H-aggregates: Hierarchical equations of motion approach

We theoretically investigated the effect of mixed Frenkel (F) and charge transfer (CT) states on the spectral properties of perylene bisimide (PBI) derivatives, focusing on the role of strong electron-phonon interactions. The model consists of a four-level system described by the Holstein Hamiltonian coupled to independent local heat-baths on each site, described by Brownian spectral distribution functions. We employ the reduced hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) approach to calculate the time evolution of the system and compare it to the pure F exciton cases. We compute the absorption and time-gated fluorescence (TGF) spectra for different exciton transfer integrals and F-CT band gap conditions. The coherence length of excitons ($N_{coh}$) is evaluated employing two different definitions. We observe the presence of an excited hot state peak whose intensity is associated with the delocalization of the excited species and ultrafast dynamics that are solely dependent on the frequency of the local bath. The results indicate that the inclusion of CT states promotes localization of the excitons which is manifested in a decrease in the intensity of the hot state peak and the 0--1 peak, and an increase in the intensity of the 0--0 emission peak in TGF spectrum, leading to a decrease of $N_{coh}$.

Equilibrium-nonequilibrium ring-polymer molecular dynamics for nonlinear spectroscopy

Two-dimensional Raman and hybrid terahertz-Raman spectroscopic techniques provide invaluable insight into molecular structures and dynamics of condensed-phase systems. However, corroborating experimental results with theory is difficult due to the high computational cost of incorporating quantum-mechanical effects in the simulations. Here, we present the equilibrium-nonequilibrium ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD), a practical computational method that can account for nuclear quantum effects on the two-time response function of nonlinear optical spectroscopy. Unlike a recently developed approach based on the double Kubo transformed (DKT) correlation function, our method is exact in the classical limit, where it reduces to the established equilibrium-nonequilibrium classical molecular dynamics method. Using benchmark model calculations, we demonstrate the advantages of the equilibrium-nonequilibrium RPMD over classical and DKT-based approaches. Importantly, its derivation, which is based on the nonequilibrium RPMD, obviates the need for identifying an appropriate Kubo transformed correlation function and paves the way for applying real-time path-integral techniques to multidimensional spectroscopy.

Open Quantum System Response from the Hierarchy of Pure States

The spectral properties of a quantum system are essential when probing theoretical predictions against experimental data. For an open quantum system strongly interacting with its environment, spectral features are challenging to calculate. Here we demonstrate that the stochastic Hierarchy of Pure States (HOPS) approach is well suited to calculate the response of an open quantum system to a, possibly strong, coherent probe driving. For weak driving, where Kubo's linear response theory is applicable, it turns out that the HOPS method is highly efficient since fluctuations inherent to the stochastic dynamics cancel for the response function and, thus, allow us to obtain the susceptibility easily. Our results are in agreement with experimental data for a strongly damped spin system showing that the transition from oscillatory to overdamped motion is also reflected by the transmission spectrum. As a further application we demonstrate that the susceptibility, quantifying the amplitude of the response, as a function of temperature exhibits a maximum which is the hallmark of stochastic resonance. Beyond the linear regime, the exact open system dynamics shows the asymptotic Floquet state. We use the topic of probe driving and response to present the HOPS approach in a novel and self-contained way. This includes the importance sampling scheme which yields the nonlinear HOPS as well as the stochastic treatment of a thermal initial environmental state within the zero temperature formalism. Special attention is given to the exponential representation of the algebraic Ohmic bath correlation function and the truncation condition for the hierarchy.

Simulation of Time- and Frequency-Resolved Four-Wave-Mixing Signals at Finite Temperatures: A Thermo-Field Dynamics Approach

We propose a new approach to simulate four-wave-mixing signals of molecular systems at finite temperatures by combining the multiconfigurational Ehrenfest method with the thermo-field dynamics theory. In our approach, the four-time correlation functions at finite temperatures are mapped onto those at zero temperature in an enlarged Hilbert space with twice the vibrational degrees of freedom. As an illustration, we have simulated three multidimensional spectroscopic signals, time- and frequency-resolved fluorescence spectra, transient-absorption pump-probe spectra, and electronic two-dimensional (2D) spectra at finite temperatures, for a conical intersection-mediated singlet fission model of a rubrene crystal. It is shown that a detailed dynamical picture of the singlet fission process can be extracted from the three spectroscopic signals. An increasing temperature leads to lower intensities of the signals and broadened vibrational peaks, which can be attributed to faster singlet-triplet population transfer and stronger bath-induced electronic dephasing at higher temperatures.

Small Nuclear Quantum Effects in Scattering of H and D from Graphene

We study nuclear quantum effects in H/D sticking to graphene, comparing scattering experiments at near-zero coverage with classical, quantized, and transition-state calculations. The experiment shows H/D sticking probabilities that are indistinguishable from one another and markedly smaller than those expected from a consideration of zero-point energy shifts of the chemisorption transition state. Inclusion of dynamical effects and vibrational anharmonicity via ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) yields results that are in good agreement with the experimental results. RPMD also reveals that nuclear quantum effects, while modest, arise primarily from carbon and not from H/D motion, confirming the importance of a C atom rehybridization mechanism associated with H/D sticking on graphene.

Numerically "exact" approach to open quantum dynamics: The hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM)

An open quantum system refers to a system that is further coupled to a bath system consisting of surrounding radiation fields, atoms, molecules, or proteins. The bath system is typically modeled by an infinite number of harmonic oscillators. This system-bath model can describe the time-irreversible dynamics through which the system evolves toward a thermal equilibrium state at finite temperature. In nuclear magnetic resonance and atomic spectroscopy, dynamics can be studied easily by using simple quantum master equations under the assumption that the system-bath interaction is weak (perturbative approximation) and the bath fluctuations are very fast (Markovian approximation). However, such approximations cannot be applied in chemical physics and biochemical physics problems, where environmental materials are complex and strongly coupled with environments. The hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) can describe the numerically "exact" dynamics of a reduced system under nonperturbative and non-Markovian system-bath interactions, which has been verified on the basis of exact analytical solutions (non-Markovian tests) with any desired numerical accuracy. The HEOM theory has been used to treat systems of practical interest, in particular, to account for various linear and nonlinear spectra in molecular and solid state materials, to evaluate charge and exciton transfer rates in biological systems, to simulate resonant tunneling and quantum ratchet processes in nanodevices, and to explore quantum entanglement states in quantum information theories. This article presents an overview of the HEOM theory, focusing on its theoretical background and applications, to help further the development of the study of open quantum dynamics.

Anharmonic Phonon Dispersion in Polyethylene

The second-order Green's function method for anharmonic crystals has been applied to an infinite, periodic chain of polyethylene taking into account up to quartic force constants. The frequency-independent approximation to the Dyson self-energy gives rise to numerous divergent resonances, which are fortuitous. Instead, solving the Dyson equation self-consistently with a frequency-dependent self-energy resists divergences from resonances or zero-frequency acoustic vibrations. The calculated anharmonic phonon dispersion, which nonetheless displays many true resonances, and anharmonic phonon density of states furnish hitherto unknown details that explain smaller features of observed vibrational spectra.

Spectral Filtering as a Tool for Two-Dimensional Spectroscopy: A Theoretical Model

Two-dimensional optical spectroscopy is a powerful technique for the probing of coherent quantum superpositions. Recently, the finite width of the laser spectrum has been employed to selectively tune experiments for the study of particular coherences. This involves the exclusion of certain transition frequencies, which results in the elimination of specific Liouville pathways. The rigorous analysis of such experiments requires the use of ever more sophisticated theoretical models for the optical spectroscopy of electronic and vibronic systems. Here we develop a nonimpulsive and non-Markovian model, which combines an explicit definition of the laser spectrum, via the equation of motion-phase matching approach (EOM-PMA), with the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM). This theoretical framework is capable of simulating the 2D spectroscopy of vibronic systems with low frequency modes, coupled to environments of intermediate and slower time scales. In order to demonstrate the spectral filtering of vibronic coherences, we examine the elimination of lower energy peaks from the 2D spectra of a zinc porphyrin monomer upon blue-shifting the laser spectrum. The filtering of Liouville pathways is revealed through the disappearance of peaks from the amplitude spectra for a coupled vibrational mode.

Local order and vibrational coupling of the C=O Stretching Mode of γ-Caprolactone in liquid binary mixtures

The isotropic and anisotropic parts Raman spectra of γ-Caprolactone in the binary mixture at different concentrations have been measured. The non-coincidence effect (NCE) of γ-Caprolactone was determined in carbon tetrachloride solution and DMSO solution. The NCE of the ν₁₁(C=O) stretching mode in the γ-Caprolactone/DMSO mixtures exhibits a linear plot, in contrast to that in the γ-Caprolactone/CCl₄ mixtures, which shows an upward (convex) curvature. The reduction and enhancement of the dimer structure (short-range orientational order) of γ-Caprolactone in the γ-Caprolactone/DMSO and γ-Caprolactone/CCl₄ mixtures respectively may play a major role in shifting of peak frequencies, thus the geometries of monomer and dimer of γ-Caprolactone were calculated at the B3LYP-D3/6-311 G (d,p) level of theory. We proposed aggregated model to explain the γ-Caprolactone C=O vibration NCE phenomenon and its concentration effect and found it largely consistent with our experimental findings. Solvent dependent experiment show the value of NCE declined with the increase of the solvent dielectric constant under the same condition which is consistent with the Logan's theory.

Vibrational spectroscopy via the Caldeira-Leggett model with anharmonic system potentials

The Caldeira-Leggett (CL) model, which describes a system bi-linearly coupled to a harmonic bath, has enjoyed popularity in condensed phase spectroscopy owing to its utmost simplicity. However, the applicability of the model to cases with anharmonic system potentials, as it is required for the description of realistic systems in solution, is questionable due to the presence of the invertibility problem [F. Gottwald et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 2722 (2015)] unless the system itself resembles the CL model form. This might well be the case at surfaces or in the solid regime, which we here confirm for a particular example of an iodine molecule in the atomic argon environment under high pressure. For this purpose we extend the recently proposed Fourier method for parameterizing linear generalized Langevin dynamics [F. Gottwald et al., J. Chem. Phys. 142, 244110 (2015)] to the non-linear case based on the CL model and perform an extensive error analysis. In order to judge on the applicability of this model in advance, we give practical empirical criteria and discuss the effect of the potential renormalization term. The obtained results provide evidence that the CL model can be used for describing a potentially broad class of systems.

Simulation of femtosecond two-dimensional electronic spectra of conical intersections

We have simulated femtosecond two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectra for an excited-state conical intersection using the wave-function version of the equation-of-motion phase-matching approach. We show that 2D spectra at fixed values of the waiting time provide information on the structure of the vibronic eigenstates of the conical intersection, while the evolution of the spectra with the waiting time reveals predominantly ground-state wave-packet dynamics. The results show that 2D spectra of conical intersection systems differ significantly from those obtained for chromophores with well separated excited-state potential-energy surfaces. The spectral signatures which can be attributed to conical intersections are discussed.

Notes on simulating two-dimensional Raman and terahertz-Raman signals with a full molecular dynamics simulation approach

Recent developments in two-dimensional (2D) THz-Raman and 2D Raman spectroscopies have created the possibility for quantitatively investigating the role of many dynamic and structural aspects of the molecular system. We explain the significant points for properly simulating 2D vibrational spectroscopic studies of intermolecular modes using the full molecular dynamics approach, in particular, regarding the system size, the treatment of the thermostat, and inclusion of an Ewald summation for the induced polarizability. Moreover, using the simulation results for water employing various polarization functions, we elucidate the roles of permanent and induced optical properties in determining the 2D profiles of the signal.

Two-Dimensional Vibrational Spectroscopy of a Dissipative System with the Optimized Mean-Trajectory Approximation

The optimized mean-trajectory (OMT) approximation is a semiclassical method for computing vibrational response functions from action-quantized classical trajectories connected by discrete transitions representing radiation-matter interactions. Here we apply this method to an anharmonic chromophore coupled to a harmonic bath. A forward-backward trajectory implementation of the OMT method is described that addresses the numerical challenges of applying the OMT to large systems with disparate frequency scales. The OMT is shown to well reproduce line shapes and waiting time dynamics in the pure dephasing limit of weak coupling to an off-resonant bath. The OMT is also shown to describe a case where energy transfer is the predominant source of line broadening.

Applicability of the Caldeira-Leggett Model to Vibrational Spectroscopy in Solution

Formulating a rigorous system-bath partitioning approach remains an open issue. In this context, the famous Caldeira-Leggett model that enables quantum and classical treatment of Brownian motion on equal footing has enjoyed popularity. Although this model is by any means a useful theoretical tool, its ability to describe anharmonic dynamics of real systems is often taken for granted. In this Letter, we show that the mapping between a molecular system under study and the model cannot be established in a self-consistent way, unless the system part of the potential is taken effectively harmonic. Mathematically, this implies that the mapping is not invertible. This "invertibility problem" is not dependent on the peculiarities of particular molecular systems and is rooted in the anharmonicity of the system part of the Caldeira-Leggett model potential.

Vibrational coherence and energy transfer in two-dimensional spectra with the optimized mean-trajectory approximation

The optimized mean-trajectory (OMT) approximation is a semiclassical method for computing vibrational response functions from action-quantized classical trajectories connected by discrete transitions that represent radiation-matter interactions. Here, we extend the OMT to include additional vibrational coherence and energy transfer processes. This generalized approximation is applied to a pair of anharmonic chromophores coupled to a bath. The resulting 2D spectra are shown to reflect coherence transfer between normal modes.

Quantum stochastic dynamics in the presence of a time-periodic rapidly oscillating potential: nonadiabatic escape rate

Escape from a metastable state in the presence of a high-frequency field (where the driving becomes nonadiabatic) underlies a broad range of phenomena of physics and chemistry, and thus its understanding is of paramount importance. We study the problem of intermediate-to-high-damping escape from a metastable state of a dissipative system driven by a rapidly oscillating field, one of the most important classes of nonequilibrium systems, in a broad range of field driving frequencies (ω) and amplitudes (a). We construct a Langevin equation using quantum gauge transformation in the light of Floquet theorem and exploiting a systematic perturbative expansion in powers of 1/ω using "Kapitza-Landau time window". The quantum dynamics in a high-frequency field are found to be described by an effective time-independent potential. The temperature dependence of escape rate and the change of its form with varying parameters of the field have been analyzed. It may decrease upon increasing the temperature which is contingent on the effects of intricate interplay between external modulation and dissipation. The crossover temperature between tunnelling and thermal hopping increases with an increase in external modulation so that quantum effects in the escape are relevant at higher temperatures. These observations are uncommon and counterintuitive and, therefore, of considerable interest. Our results might be valuable for the exploration of the dynamics of cold atoms in electromagnetic fields.