A quantum dynamical study of CH overtones in fluoroform. I. A nine‐dimensionalabinitiosurface, vibrational spectra and dynamics

Isotope effects on the resonance interactions and vibrational quantum dynamics of fluoroform 12,13CHF3

We report a comparison of the analysis of the low energy spectrum of ¹³CHF₃ and ¹²CHF₃ from the THz (FIR) range to the ν₁ fundamental at high resolution (δ[small nu, Greek, tilde] < 0.001 cm^-1 or otherwise Doppler limited) on the basis of FTIR spectra taken both with ordinary light sources and with the synchrotron radiation from the Swiss Light Source. Several vibrational levels are accurately determined including, in particular, the 2ν₄ CH-bending overtone and the ν₁ CH-stretching fundamental of ¹³CHF₃. Comparison of experimental results with those from accurate full dimensional vibrational calculations allows for a study of the time-dependent quantum dynamics of intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) in the CH chromophore both on short time scales (fs) and longer time scales (ps) when coupling to the lower frequency modes becomes important and where the ¹²C/¹³C isotope effects are very large.

Variational Calculation of Specific, Highly Excited Vibrational States in DFCO: Comparison with Experimental Data

A stimulated emission pumping spectra of jet-cooled DFCO performed by Crane et al. (J. Mol. Spectrosc. 1997, 183, 273) has provided a great number of ro-vibrational lines up to 9000 cm(-1) of excitation energy. By combining a Jacobi-Wilson (JW) approach with a Davidson scheme, we calculate the lines provided by the experiment up to 9000 cm(-1) using an ab initio global potential energy surface (PES) developed by Kato et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 1997, 107, 6114). Comparisons between experimental and calculated data provide a critical test of the quality of the PES used. We show that the variational calculated energies can be efficiently corrected by taking into account the error observed for the A' fundamental transitions nu(i) (i = 1, ..., 5) and the first overtone 2nu(6). A detailed analysis of the eigenstates obtained by the calculation allows one to quantify the coupling between the different modes. Such an information is essential to understand and predict the energy flow through a DFCO molecule that is initially excited.

Reduced-Order Modeling, Error Estimation, and the Role of the Start-Vector: The Recursive Residue Generation Method Revisited

The recursive residue generation method (RRGM) [Wyatt, R. E. Adv. Chem. Phys. 1989, 73, 231] is re-derived using the formalism of reduced-order modeling [Bai, Z. Appl. Numerical Math. 2002, 43, 9]. A stopping criteria for the RRGM recursions is proposed, on the basis of an expression for an upper bound to the absolute error [Bai, Z.; Ye, Q. Electron. Trans. Numerical Anal. 1998, 7, 1]. It is further pointed out that, in general, the start-vector has a negligible effect on the convergence of the RRGM.

Relaxation of the CH stretch in liquid CHBr3: Solvent effects and decay rates using classical nonequilibrium simulations

This article addresses two questions regarding the decay of the CH stretch in liquid CHBr3. The first is whether the initial steps of the relaxation primarily involve energy redistribution within the excited molecule alone. Gas phase quantum mechanical and classical calculations are performed to examine the role of the solvent in this process. At the fundamental excitation level, it is found that CH stretch decay is, in fact, strongly solvent driven. The second question is on the applicability of a fully classical approach to the calculation of CH stretch condensed phase decay rates. To this end, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are performed. The results are compared with quantum mechanical rates computed previously. The two methods are found to be in fair agreement with each other. However, care must be exercised in the interpretation of the classical results.

Combination of perturbative and variational methods for calculating molecular spectra: Calculation of the υ=3–5 CH stretch overtone spectrum of CHF3

Highly excited states of the CHF3 molecule belonging to the third, fourth, and fifth Fermi polyad are calculated using a combination of the Van Vleck perturbation theory and a variational treatment. The perturbation theory preconditions the Hamiltonian matrix by transforming away all couplings except those between nearly degenerate states. This transformation is implemented so that eigenvalues can be found with significantly smaller matrices than that which would be needed in the original normal mode representation. Even with preconditioning, at the energies as high as 3-5 quanta in the CH stretch, it is not possible to directly diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix due to the large basis sets required. Iterative methods, particularly the block-Davidson method, are explored for finding the eigenvalues. The methods are compared and the advantages discussed.

How to choose one-dimensional basis functions so that a very efficient multidimensional basis may be extracted from a direct product of the one-dimensional functions: Energy levels of coupled systems with as many as 16 coordinates

In this paper we propose a scheme for choosing basis functions for quantum dynamics calculations. Direct product bases are frequently used. The number of direct product functions required to converge a spectrum, compute a rate constant, etc., is so large that direct product calculations are impossible for molecules or reacting systems with more than four atoms. It is common to extract a smaller working basis from a huge direct product basis by removing some of the product functions. We advocate a build and prune strategy of this type. The one-dimensional (1D) functions from which we build the direct product basis are chosen to satisfy two conditions: (1) they nearly diagonalize the full Hamiltonian matrix; (2) they minimize off-diagonal matrix elements that couple basis functions with diagonal elements close to those of the energy levels we wish to compute. By imposing these conditions we increase the number of product functions that can be removed from the multidimensional basis without degrading the accuracy of computed energy levels. Two basic types of 1D basis functions are in common use: eigenfunctions of 1D Hamiltonians and discrete variable representation (DVR) functions. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The 1D functions we propose are intermediate between the 1D eigenfunction functions and the DVR functions. If the coupling is very weak, they are very nearly 1D eigenfunction functions. As the strength of the coupling is increased they resemble more closely DVR functions. We assess the usefulness of our basis by applying it to model 6D, 8D, and 16D Hamiltonians with various coupling strengths. We find approximately linear scaling.

Intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution in the highly excited fluoroform molecule: A quantum mechanical study using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree algorithm

The present paper is devoted to a detailed study of the intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution in fluoroform initiated by a local mode excitation of the CH stretch [nnu(CH) (n=1,...,4)]. All nine internal degrees of freedom are explicitly taken into account and the full quantum mechanical simulation is performed by means of the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree algorithm. The existence of different time scales considerably complicates the dynamics. The mode-to-mode energy transfer is analyzed by calculating the evolution of the partial energies of all vibrational modes. This study emphasizes the crucial role played by the two-dimensional FCH bending modes which act as an energy reservoir. The fast energy flow into these bending modes significantly hinders an energy flow from the CH chromophore. Finally, our results are compared with those obtained previously with the wave operator sorting algorithm approach.

The vibrational energy flow transition in organic molecules: theory meets experiment

Most large dynamical systems are thought to have ergodic dynamics, whereas small systems may not have free interchange of energy between degrees of freedom. This assumption is made in many areas of chemistry and physics, ranging from nuclei to reacting molecules and on to quantum dots. We examine the transition to facile vibrational energy flow in a large set of organic molecules as molecular size is increased. Both analytical and computational results based on local random matrix models describe the transition to unrestricted vibrational energy flow in these molecules. In particular, the models connect the number of states participating in intramolecular energy flow to simple molecular properties such as the molecular size and the distribution of vibrational frequencies. The transition itself is governed by a local anharmonic coupling strength and a local state density. The theoretical results for the transition characteristics compare well with those implied by experimental measurements using IR fluorescence spectroscopy of dilution factors reported by Stewart and McDonald [Stewart, G. M. & McDonald, J. D. (1983) J. Chem. Phys. 78, 3907-3915].