Exact Potential Driving the Electron Dynamics in Enhanced Ionization of H(2)(+)

Exact Factorization Adventures: A Promising Approach for Non-Bound States

Modeling the dynamics of non-bound states in molecules requires an accurate description of how electronic motion affects nuclear motion and vice-versa. The exact factorization (XF) approach offers a unique perspective, in that it provides potentials that act on the nuclear subsystem or electronic subsystem, which contain the effects of the coupling to the other subsystem in an exact way. We briefly review the various applications of the XF idea in different realms, and how features of these potentials aid in the interpretation of two different laser-driven dissociation mechanisms. We present a detailed study of the different ways the coupling terms in recently-developed XF-based mixed quantum-classical approximations are evaluated, where either truly coupled trajectories, or auxiliary trajectories that mimic the coupling are used, and discuss their effect in both a surface-hopping framework as well as the rigorously-derived coupled-trajectory mixed quantum-classical approach.

Describing the photo-isomerization of a retinal chromophore model with coupled and quantum trajectories

The exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wavefunction is applied to the study of the photo- isomerization of a retinal chromophore model. We describe such an ultrafast nonadiabatic process by analyzing the time-dependent potentials of the theory and by mimicking nuclear dynamics with quantum and coupled trajectories. The time-dependent vector and scalar potentials are the signature of the exact factorization, as they guide nuclear dynamics by encoding the complete electronic dynamics and including excited-state effects. Analysis of the potentials is, thus, essential - when possible - to predict the time-dependent behavior of the system of interest. In this work, we employ the exact time-dependent potentials, available for the numerically-exactly solvable model used here, to propagate quantum nuclear trajectories representing the isomerization reaction of the retinal chromophore. The quantum trajectories are the best possible trajectory-based description of the reaction when using the exact-factorization formalism, and thus allow us to assess the performance of the coupled-trajectory, fully approximate, schemes derived from the exact-factorization equations.

Multi-configuration electron-nuclear dynamics: An open-shell approach

The multi-configuration electron-nuclear dynamics for open shell systems with a spin-unrestricted formalism is described. The mean fields are evaluated using second-order reduced density matrices for electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom. Applications to light-element diatomics including equilibrium geometries, electronic energies, dipole moments, and absorption spectra are presented. The von Neumann entropies for different spin states of a LiH molecule are compared.

Quantum-classical nonadiabatic dynamics of Floquet driven systems

We develop a trajectory-based approach for excited-state molecular dynamics simulations of systems subject to an external periodic drive. We combine the exact-factorization formalism, allowing us to treat electron-nuclear systems in nonadiabatic regimes, with the Floquet formalism for time-periodic processes. The theory is developed starting with the molecular time-dependent Schrödinger equation with the inclusion of an external periodic drive that couples to the system dipole moment. With the support of the Floquet formalism, quantum dynamics is approximated by combining classical-like, trajectory-based, nuclear evolution with electronic dynamics represented in the Floquet basis. The resulting algorithm, which is an extension of the coupled-trajectory mixed quantum-classical scheme for periodically driven systems, is applied to a model study, exactly solvable, with different field intensities.

Case studies of the time-dependent potential energy surface for dynamics in cavities

The exact time-dependent potential energy surface driving the nuclear dynamics was recently shown to be a useful tool to understand and interpret the coupling of nuclei, electrons, and photons in cavity settings. Here, we provide a detailed analysis of its structure for exactly solvable systems that model two phenomena: cavity-induced suppression of proton-coupled electron-transfer and its dependence on the initial state, and cavity-induced electronic excitation. We demonstrate the inadequacy of simply using a weighted average of polaritonic surfaces to determine the dynamics. Such a weighted average misses a crucial term that redistributes energy between the nuclear and the polaritonic systems, and this term can in fact become a predominant term in determining the nuclear dynamics when several polaritonic surfaces are involved. Evolving an ensemble of classical trajectories on the exact potential energy surface reproduces the nuclear wavepacket quite accurately, while evolving on the weighted polaritonic surface fails after a short period of time. The implications and prospects for application of mixed quantum-classical methods based on this surface are discussed.

Quantum Trajectories for the Dynamics in the Exact Factorization Framework: A Proof-of-Principle Test

In the framework of the exact factorization of the time-dependent electron-nuclear wave function, we investigate the possibility of solving the nuclear time-dependent Schrödinger equation based on trajectories. The nuclear equation is separated in a Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the phase of the wave function, and a continuity equation for its (squared) modulus. For illustrative adiabatic and nonadiabatic one-dimensional models, we implement a procedure to follow the evolution of the nuclear density along the characteristics of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Those characteristics are referred to as quantum trajectories, since they are generated via ordinary differential equations similar to Hamilton's equations, but including the so-called quantum potential, and they can be used to reconstruct exactly the quantum-mechanical nuclear wave function, provided infinite initial conditions are propagated in time.

Spin-Orbit Interactions in Ultrafast Molecular Processes

We investigate spin-orbit interactions in ultrafast molecular processes employing the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wave function. We revisit the original derivation by including spin-orbit coupling, and show how the dynamics driven by the time-dependent potential energy surface alleviates inconsistencies arising from different electronic representations. We propose a novel trajectory-based scheme to simulate spin-forbidden non-radiative processes, and we show its performance in the treatment of excited-state dynamics where spin-orbit effects couple different spin multiplets.

Hovering States of Ammonia in a High-Intensity, High-Frequency Oscillating Field: Trapped into Planarity by Laser-Induced Hybridization

A high-intensity, high-frequency laser can create an oscillating induced dipole moment in a molecule. At high laser frequencies with a long pulse width, a stable non-ionizing state with a laser-induced hybridization of the electrons is formed. For ammonia, aligned with the linear polarization direction of the laser, such stable states can be realized. Electronic hybridization in the presence of the high-frequency field is such that the lone pair propensity is dynamically equalized on either side of ammonia. This leads to a destabilization of pyramidal ammonia and hovering states with the electron density flipping to either side of the geometry. Electronic structure calculations in an oscillating frame of reference anticipate this effect with a predicted classical quiver distance of 0.1 Å. Electronic dynamics at a laser intensity of 1.14 × 10¹³ W/cm² and a frequency of 8.16 eV predicts negligible ionization for the planar geometry. Approximate nuclear wave packet dynamics in the oscillating potential energy generated by the electrons predicts a trapping of ammonia in its planar transition state geometry.

On the numerical solution of the exact factorization equations

The exact factorization (EF) approach to coupled electron-ion dynamics recasts the time-dependent molecular Schrödinger equation as two coupled equations, one for the nuclear wavefunction and one for the conditional electronic wavefunction. The potentials appearing in these equations have provided insight into non-adiabatic processes, and new practical non-adiabatic dynamics methods have been formulated starting from these equations. Here, we provide a first demonstration of a self-consistent solution of the exact equations, with a preliminary analysis of their stability and convergence properties. The equations have an unprecedented mathematical form, involving a Hamiltonian outside the class of Hermitian Hamiltonians usually encountered in time-propagation, and so the usual numerical methods for time-dependent Schrödinger fail when applied in a straightforward way to the EF equations. We find an approach that enables stable propagation long enough to witness non-adiabatic behavior in a model system before non-trivial instabilities take over. Implications for the development and analysis of EF-based methods are discussed.

Ab Initio Nonadiabatic Dynamics with Coupled Trajectories: A Rigorous Approach to Quantum (De)Coherence

We report the first nonadiabatic molecular dynamics study based on the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wave function. Our approach (a coupled-trajectory mixed quantum-classical, CT-MQC, scheme) is based on the quantum-classical limit derived from systematic and controlled approximations to the full quantum-mechanical problem formulated in the exact-factorization framework. Its strength is the ability to correctly capture quantum (de)coherence effects in a trajectory-based approach to excited-state dynamics. We show this by benchmarking CT-MQC dynamics against a revised version of the popular fewest-switches surface-hopping scheme that is able to fix its well-documented overcoherence issue. The CT-MQC approach is successfully applied to investigation of the photochemistry (ring-opening) of oxirane in the gas phase, analyzing in detail the role of decoherence. This work represents a significant step forward in the establishment of the exact factorization as a powerful tool to study excited-state dynamics, not only for interpretation purposes but mainly for nonadiabatic ab initio molecular dynamics simulations.

Exact Single-Electron Approach to the Dynamics of Molecules in Strong Laser Fields

We present an exact single-electron picture that describes the correlated electron dynamics in strong laser fields. Our approach is based on the factorization of the electronic wave function as a product of a marginal and a conditional amplitude. The marginal amplitude, which depends only on one electronic coordinate and yields the exact one-electron density and current density, obeys a time-dependent Schrödinger equation with an effective time-dependent potential. The exact equations are used to derive an approximation that is a step towards general and feasible ab initio single-electron calculations for molecules. The derivation also sheds new light on the usual interpretation of the single-active electron approximation. From the study of model systems, we find that the exact and approximate single-electron potentials for processes with negligible two-electron ionization lead to qualitatively similar dynamics, but that the ionization barrier in the exact single-electron potential may be explicitly time dependent.

Alignment dependent ultrafast electron-nuclear dynamics in molecular high-order harmonic generation

We investigated the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process of diatomic molecular ion H₂⁺ in non-Born-Oppenheimer approximations (NBOA). The corresponding three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation is solved with arbitrary alignment angles. It is found that the nuclear motion can lead to spectral modulation of HHG in both the tunneling and multiphoton ionization regimes. The universal redshifts of the whole spectrum are unique in molecular HHG. The spectral width of HHG increases in NBOA. We calculated possible influences on redshifts of HHG in real experimental conditions and found that redshifts decrease with the increase of alignment angles of the molecules and are sensitive to the initial vibrational states. It can be used to extract the ultrafast electron-nuclear dynamics and image molecular structure. It will be instructive to related experiments.

On the Dynamics through a Conical Intersection

Conical intersections represent critical topological features of potential energy surfaces and open ultrafast nonradiative deactivation channels for photoexcited molecules. In the following, we investigate how this funneling picture is transposed in the eyes of the exact factorization formalism for a 2D model system. The exact factorization of the total molecular wave function leads to the fundamental concept of time-dependent potential energy surface and time-dependent vector potential, whose behavior during a dynamics through a conical intersection has up to now remained unexplored. Despite the fact that these quantities might be viewed as time-dependent generalizations of the adiabatic potential energy surfaces and the nonadiabatic coupling vectors, characteristic quantities appearing in the Born-Oppenheimer framework, we observe that they do not exhibit particular topological features in the region of conical intersection but still reflect the complex dynamics of the nuclear wavepacket.

Electronic non-adiabatic dynamics in enhanced ionization of isotopologues of hydrogen molecular ions from the exact factorization perspective

An exact-factorization perspective of enhanced ionization in isotopologues of H₂⁺ demonstrates the concept of the exact potential driving the electrons in non-adiabatic motion of molecules in strong fields, and sets a new platform for introducing various approximations.

A fully general time-dependent multiconfiguration self-consistent-field method for the electron–nuclear dynamics

A time-dependent multiconfiguration self-consistent-field method for a system consisting of arbitrarily different kinds and numbers of interacting fermions and bosons.

Toward the Full Quantum Dynamical Description of Photon Induced Processes in D2. J Phys Chem A 2016;120:9411-9421. [PMID: 27934332 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.6b09623]

The dissociative ionization (multiphoton regime) of the D₂⁺ ion by ultrashort laser pulses has been studied theoretically using ab initio calculations. The combined ionization and dissociation spectrum was explored for fixed molecular axis orientations. In accordance with previous investigations, the dominant features in the obtained joint energy spectrum were multiphoton peaks. In addition to this, in the present work, photoelectron angular distributions were analyzed as well. By performing a partial wave analysis for each multiphoton peak, we have identified the number of absorbed photons. Moreover, we also found that the angular distribution can significantly change inside a multiphoton peak as a function of electron and nuclear kinetic energy.

Quantum-Classical Nonadiabatic Dynamics: Coupled- vs Independent-Trajectory Methods

Trajectory-based mixed quantum-classical approaches to coupled electron-nuclear dynamics suffer from well-studied problems such as the lack of (or incorrect account for) decoherence in the trajectory surface hopping method and the inability of reproducing the spatial splitting of a nuclear wave packet in Ehrenfest-like dynamics. In the context of electronic nonadiabatic processes, these problems can result in wrong predictions for quantum populations and in unphysical outcomes for the nuclear dynamics. In this paper, we propose a solution to these issues by approximating the coupled electronic and nuclear equations within the framework of the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear wave function. We present a simple quantum-classical scheme based on coupled classical trajectories and test it against the full quantum mechanical solution from wave packet dynamics for some model situations which represent particularly challenging problems for the above-mentioned traditional methods.