Low-Lying Excited States of Light-Harvesting System II in Purple Bacteria

Polaron dynamics in two-dimensional photon-echo spectroscopy of molecular rings

We have developed a new approach to the computation of third-order spectroscopic signals of molecular rings, by incorporating the Davydov soliton theory into the nonlinear response function formalism. The Davydov D1 and D Ansätze have been employed to treat the interactions between the excitons and the primary phonons, allowing for a full description of arbitrary exciton-phonon coupling strengths. As an illustration, we have simulated a series of optical 2D spectra for two models of molecular rings.

CHARGE AND ENERGY TRANSFER IN BINAPHTHALENE MOLECULE WITH TWO SPIROPYRAN UNITS USED FOR CHIRAL MOLECULAR SWITCHES AND LOGIC GATES

A new binaphthalene molecule with two spiropyran units used for chiral molecular switches and logic gates was synthesized and characterized.12 In this paper, charge and energy transfer in binaphthalene molecule with two spiropyran units are theoretically investigated with quantum chemistry method, as well as 2D and 3D real space analysis methods, since molecule construction with photoinduced electron transfer or charge transfer is one of the most frequently used pathways for building useful sensors and molecular machines. The orientation and strength of transition dipole moment in absorption spectra are obtained by 3D transition density. The orientation and results of intramolecular charge transfer on the excitation are obtained with 3D charge difference densities. The electron-hole coherence and excitation delocalization in absorption spectra are investigated with 2D contour plots of transition density matrix. Overall, the computed results remain in good agreement with the relevant experimental data, and the theoretical results reveal the relationship between the function of sensor and the excited state properties of the structure and transformation of the compound, upon addition of acid and base in absorption spectra.

Density matrix based time-dependent density functional theory and the solution of its linear response in real time domain

A density matrix based time-dependent density functional theory is extended in the present work. Chebyshev expansion is introduced to propagate the linear response of the reduced single-electron density matrix upon the application of a time-domain delta-type external potential. The Chebyshev expansion method is more efficient and accurate than the previous fourth-order Runge-Kutta method and removes a numerical divergence problem. The discrete Fourier transformation and filter diagonalization of the first-order dipole moment are implemented to determine the excited state energies. It is found that the filter diagonalization leads to highly accurate values for the excited state energies. Finally, the density matrix based time-dependent density functional is generalized to calculate the energies of singlet-triplet excitations.

Quantum Chemical Methods for the Investigation of Photoinitiated Processes in Biological Systems: Theory and Applications

With the advent of modern computers and advances in the development of efficient quantum chemical computer codes, the meaningful computation of large molecular systems at a quantum mechanical level became feasible. Recent experimental effort to understand photoinitiated processes in biological systems, for instance photosynthesis or vision, at a molecular level also triggered theoretical investigations in this field. In this Minireview, standard quantum chemical methods are presented that are applicable and recently used for the calculation of excited states of photoinitiated processes in biological molecular systems. These methods comprise configuration interaction singles, the complete active space self-consistent field method, and time-dependent density functional theory and its variants. Semiempirical approaches are also covered. Their basic theoretical concepts and mathematical equations are briefly outlined, and their properties and limitations are discussed. Recent successful applications of the methods to photoinitiated processes in biological systems are described and theoretical tools for the analysis of excited states are presented.

Toward a molecular scale interpretation of excitation energy transfer in solvated bichromophoric systems

This paper presents a quantum-mechanical study of the intramolecular excitation energy transfer (EET) coupling in naphthalene-bridge-naphthalene systems in gas phase and in solution. ZINDO and TDDFT response schemes are compared using both an exact and an approximate solution. The approximate solution based on a perturbative approach uses the single chromophore properties to reconstruct the real system coupling thus neglecting possible through-bond effects which conversely are accounted for in the exact solution. The comparison of the results of the two approaches with the experiments allows a detailed analysis of the relative importance of through-bond and through-space effects as well as a more complete understanding of the modifications in the EET coupling with the size of the system, the chromophore-chromophore distance, and solvation.