Signatures of the Bromine Atom and Open-Shell Spin Coupling in the X-ray Spectrum of the Bromobenzene Cation.

Tabletop X-ray spectroscopy measurements at the carbon K-edge complemented by ab initio calculations are used to investigate the influence of the bromine atom on the carbon core-valence transitions in the bromobenzene cation (BrBz+). The electronic ground state of the cation is prepared by resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization of neutral bromobenzene (BrBz) and probed by X-rays produced by high-harmonic generation (HHG). Replacing one of the hydrogen atoms in benzene with a bromine atom shifts the transition from the 1sC* orbital of the carbon atom (C*) bonded to bromine by ∼1 eV to higher energy in the X-ray spectrum compared to the other carbon atoms (C). Moreover, in BrBz+, the X-ray spectrum is dominated by two relatively intense transitions, 1sC→π* and 1sC*→σ*(C*-Br), where the second transition is enhanced relative to the neutral BrBz. In addition, a doublet peak shape for these two transitions is observed in the experiment. The 1sC→π* doublet peak shape arises due to the spin coupling of the unpaired electron in the partially vacant π orbital (from ionization) with the two other unpaired electrons resulting from the transition from the 1sC core orbital to the fully vacant π* orbitals. The 1sC*→σ* doublet peak shape results from several transitions involving σ* and vibrational C*-Br mode activations following the UV ionization, which demonstrates the impact of the C*-Br bond length on the core-valence transition as well as on the relaxation geometry of BrBz+.

Polaritonic effects in the vibronic spectrum of molecules in an optical cavity.

We present a new computational framework to describe polaritons, which treats photons and electrons on the same footing using coupled-cluster theory. As a proof of concept, we study the coupling between the first electronically excited state of carbon monoxide and an optical cavity. In particular, we focus on how the interaction with the photonic mode changes the vibrational spectroscopic signature of the electronic state and how this is affected when tuning the cavity frequency and the light-matter coupling strength. For this purpose, we consider different methodologies and investigate the validity of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in such situations.

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry: An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package.

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange-correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear-electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an "open teamware" model and an increasingly modular design.

Dyson orbitals within the fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD framework: theory and application to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of ground and excited states.

We report on the implementation of Dyson orbitals within the recently introduced frozen-core (fc) core-valence separated (CVS) equation-of-motion (EOM) coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) method, which enables efficient and reliable characterization of core-level states. The ionization potential (IP) variant of fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD, in which the EOM target states have one electron less than the reference, gives access to core-ionized states thus enabling modeling of X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and its time-resolved variant (TR-XPS). Dyson orbitals are reduced quantities that can be interpreted as correlated states of the ejected/attached electron; they enter the expressions of various experimentally relevant quantities. In the context of photoelectron spectroscopy, Dyson orbitals can be used to estimate the strengths of photoionization transitions. We illustrate the utility of Dyson orbitals and fc-CVS-EOM-IP-CCSD by calculating XPS of the ground state of adenine and TR-XPS of the excited states of uracil.

Correction: Dyson orbitals within the fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD framework: theory and application to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of ground and excited states.

Correction for 'Dyson Orbitals within the fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD framework: theory and application to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of ground and excited states' by M. L. Vidal et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, DOI.

How to stay out of trouble in RIXS calculations within equation-of-motion coupled-cluster damped response theory? Safe hitchhiking in the excitation manifold by means of core-valence separation.

We present a novel approach for computing resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) cross sections within the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (EOM-CC) framework. The approach is based on recasting the sum-over-states expressions for RIXS moments into closed-form expressions by using damped response theory. Damped response formalism allows one to circumvent problems of divergent behavior of response equations in the resonant regime. However, the convergence of response equations in the X-ray frequency range is often erratic due to the electronically metastable (i.e., resonant) nature of the virtual core-excited states embedded in the valence ionization continuum. We circumvent this problematic behavior by extending the core-valence separation (CVS) scheme, which decouples the valence-excited and core-excited configurations of the excitation manifold, into the response domain. The accuracy of the CVS-enabled damped response theory, implemented within the EOM-EE-CCSD (EOM-CC for excitation energies with single and double excitations) framework, is assessed by comparison against standard damped EOM-EE-CCSD response calculations. The capabilities of the new approach are illustrated by calculations of RIXS cross sections for benzene and benzene radical cation.

Correction: How to stay out of trouble in RIXS calculations within equation-of-motion coupled-cluster damped response theory? Safe hitchhiking in the excitation manifold by means of core-valence separation.

Correction for 'How to stay out of trouble in RIXS calculations within equation-of-motion coupled-cluster damped response theory? Safe hitchhiking in the excitation manifold by means of core-valence separation' by Kaushik D. Nanda et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, 22, 2629-2641, DOI: .

Interplay of Open-Shell Spin-Coupling and Jahn-Teller Distortion in Benzene Radical Cation Probed by X-ray Spectroscopy.

We report a theoretical investigation and elucidation of the X-ray absorption spectra of neutral benzene and of the benzene cation. The generation of the cation by multiphoton ultraviolet (UV) ionization and the measurement of the carbon K-edge spectra of both species using a table-top high-harmonic generation source are described in the companion experimental paper [Epshtein, M.; et al. J. Phys. Chem. A http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.0c08736]. We show that the 1sC → π transition serves as a sensitive signature of the transient cation formation, as it occurs outside of the spectral window of the parent neutral species. Moreover, the presence of the unpaired (spectator) electron in the π-subshell of the cation and the high symmetry of the system result in significant differences relative to neutral benzene in the spectral features associated with the 1sC → π* transitions. High-level calculations using equation-of-motion coupled-cluster theory provide the interpretation of the experimental spectra and insight into the electronic structure of benzene and its cation. The prominent split structure of the 1sC → π* band of the cation is attributed to the interplay between the coupling of the core → π* excitation with the unpaired electron in the π-subshell and the Jahn-Teller distortion. The calculations attribute most of the splitting (∼1-1.2 eV) to the spin coupling, which is visible already at the Franck-Condon structure, and we estimate the additional splitting due to structural relaxation to be around ∼0.1-0.2 eV. These results suggest that X-ray absorption with increased resolution might be able to disentangle electronic and structural aspects of the Jahn-Teller effect in the benzene cation.

Table-Top X-ray Spectroscopy of Benzene Radical Cation.

Ultrafast table-top X-ray spectroscopy at the carbon K-edge is used to measure the X-ray spectral features of benzene radical cations (Bz+). The ground state of the cation is prepared selectively by two-photon ionization of neutral benzene, and the X-ray spectra are probed at early times after the ionization by transient absorption using X-rays produced by high harmonic generation (HHG). Bz+ is well-known to undergo Jahn-Teller distortion, leading to a lower symmetry and splitting of the π orbitals. Comparison of the X-ray absorption spectra of the neutral and the cation reveals a splitting of the two degenerate π* orbitals as well as an appearance of a new peak due to excitation to the partially occupied π-subshell. The π* orbital splitting of the cation, elucidated on the basis of high-level calculations in a companion theoretical paper [Vidal et al. J. Phys. Chem. A. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.0c08732], is discovered to be due to both the symmetry distortion and even more dominant spin coupling of the unpaired electron in the partially vacant π orbital (from ionization) with the unpaired electrons resulting from the transition from the 1sC core orbital to the fully vacant π* orbitals.

The DIRAC code for relativistic molecular calculations.

DIRAC is a freely distributed general-purpose program system for one-, two-, and four-component relativistic molecular calculations at the level of Hartree-Fock, Kohn-Sham (including range-separated theory), multiconfigurational self-consistent-field, multireference configuration interaction, electron propagator, and various flavors of coupled cluster theory. At the self-consistent-field level, a highly original scheme, based on quaternion algebra, is implemented for the treatment of both spatial and time reversal symmetry. DIRAC features a very general module for the calculation of molecular properties that to a large extent may be defined by the user and further analyzed through a powerful visualization module. It allows for the inclusion of environmental effects through three different classes of increasingly sophisticated embedding approaches: the implicit solvation polarizable continuum model, the explicit polarizable embedding model, and the frozen density embedding model.

Time-resolved near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure of pyrazine from electronic structure and nuclear wave packet dynamics simulations.

As a demonstration of the analysis of the electronic structure and the nuclear dynamics from time-resolved near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (TR-NEXAFS), we present the TR-NEXAFS spectra of pyrazine following the excitation to the 1B2u(ππ*) state. The spectra are calculated combining the frozen-core/core-valence separated equation-of-motion coupled cluster singles and doubles approach for the spectral signatures and the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method for the wave packet propagation. The population decay from the 1B2u(ππ*) state to the 1B3u(nπ*) and 1Au(nπ*) states, followed by oscillatory flow of population between the 1B3u(nπ*) and 1Au(nπ*) states, is interpreted by means of visualization of the potential energy curves and the reduced nuclear densities. By examining the electronic structure of the three valence-excited states and the final core-excited states, we observe that the population dynamics is explicitly reflected in the TR-NEXAFS spectra, especially when the heteroatoms are selected as the X-ray absorption sites. This work illustrates the feasibility of extracting fine details of molecular photophysical processes from TR-NEXAFS spectra by using currently available theoretical methods.

An assessment of different electronic structure approaches for modeling time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy.

We assess the performance of different protocols for simulating excited-state x-ray absorption spectra. We consider three different protocols based on equation-of-motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles, two of them combined with the maximum overlap method. The three protocols differ in the choice of a reference configuration used to compute target states. Maximum-overlap-method time-dependent density functional theory is also considered. The performance of the different approaches is illustrated using uracil, thymine, and acetylacetone as benchmark systems. The results provide guidance for selecting an electronic structure method for modeling time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Relativistic EOM-CCSD for Core-Excited and Core-Ionized State Energies Based on the Four-Component Dirac-Coulomb(-Gaunt) Hamiltonian.

We report an implementation of the core-valence separation approach to the four-component relativistic Hamiltonian-based equation-of-motion coupled-cluster with singles and doubles theory (CVS-EOM-CCSD) for the calculation of relativistic core-ionization potentials and core-excitation energies. With this implementation, which is capable of exploiting double group symmetry, we investigate the effects of the different CVS-EOM-CCSD variants and the use of different Hamiltonians based on the exact two-component (X2C) framework on the energies of different core-ionized and -excited states in halogen- (CH3I, HX, and X-, X = Cl-At) and xenon-containing (Xe, XeF2) species. Our results show that the X2C molecular mean-field approach [Sikkema, J.; J. Chem. Phys. 2009, 131, 124116], based on four-component Dirac-Coulomb mean-field calculations (2DCM), is capable of providing core excitations and ionization energies that are nearly indistinguishable from the reference four-component energies for up to and including fifth-row elements. We observe that two-electron integrals over the small-component basis sets lead to non-negligible contributions to core binding energies for the K and L edges for atoms such as iodine or astatine and that the approach based on Dirac-Coulomb-Gaunt mean-field calculations (2DCGM) are significantly more accurate than X2C calculations for which screened two-electron spin-orbit interactions are included via atomic mean-field integrals.

Nitrogen K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectra of Ammonium and Ammonia in Water Solution: Assessing the Performance of Polarizable Embedding Coupled Cluster Methods.

The recent development of liquid jet and liquid leaf sample delivery systems allows for accurate measurements of soft X-ray absorption spectra in transmission mode of solutes in a liquid environment. As this type of measurement becomes increasingly accessible, there is a strong need for reliable theoretical methods for assisting in the interpretation of the experimental data. Coupled cluster methods have been extensively developed over the past decade to simulate X-ray absorption in the gas phase. Their performance for solvated species, on the contrary, remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the current state of the art of coupled cluster modeling of nitrogen K-edge X-ray absorption of aqueous ammonia and ammonium based on quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics, where both the level of coupled cluster calculations and polarizable embedding are scrutinized. The results are compared to existing experimental data as well as simulations based on transition potential density functional theory.

XABOOM: An X-ray Absorption Benchmark of Organic Molecules Based on Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen 1s → π* Transitions.

The performance of several standard and popular approaches for calculating X-ray absorption spectra at the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen K-edges of 40 primarily organic molecules up to the size of guanine has been evaluated, focusing on the low-energy and intense 1s → π* transitions. Using results obtained with CVS-ADC(2)-x and fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD as benchmark references, we investigate the performance of CC2, ADC(2), ADC(3/2), and commonly adopted density functional theory (DFT)-based approaches. Here, focus is on precision rather than on accuracy of transition energies and intensities-in other words, we target relative energies and intensities and the spread thereof, rather than absolute values. The use of exchange-correlation functionals tailored for time-dependent DFT calculations of core excitations leads to error spreads similar to those seen for more standard functionals, despite yielding superior absolute energies. Long-range corrected functionals are shown to perform particularly well compared to our reference data, showing error spreads in energy and intensity of 0.2-0.3 eV and ∼10%, respectively, as compared to 0.3-0.6 eV and ∼20% for a typical pure hybrid. In comparing intensities, state mixing can complicate matters, and techniques to avoid this issue are discussed. Furthermore, the influence of basis sets in high-level ab initio calculations is investigated, showing that reasonably accurate results are obtained with the use of 6-311++G**. We name this benchmark suite as XABOOM (X-ray absorption benchmark of organic molecules) and provide molecular structures and ground-state self-consistent field energies and spectroscopic data. We believe that it provides a good assessment of electronic structure theory methods for calculating X-ray absorption spectra and will become useful for future developments in this field.

Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster Theory to Model L-Edge X-ray Absorption and Photoelectron Spectra.

We present an extension of the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) theory for computing X-ray L-edge spectra, both in the absorption (XAS) and in the photoelectron (XPS) regimes. The approach is based on the perturbative evaluation of spin-orbit couplings using the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian and nonrelativistic wave functions described by the fc-CVS-EOM-CCSD ansatz (EOM-CCSD within the frozen-core core-valence separated (fc-CVS) scheme). The formalism is based on spinless one-particle density matrices. The approach is illustrated by modeling XAS and XPS of several model systems ranging from Ar to small molecules containing sulfur and silicon.

New and Efficient Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster Framework for Core-Excited and Core-Ionized States.

We present a fully analytical implementation of the core-valence separation (CVS) scheme for the equation-of-motion (EOM) coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) method for calculations of core-level states. Inspired by the CVS idea as originally formulated by Cederbaum, Domcke, and Schirmer, pure valence excitations are excluded from the EOM target space and the frozen-core approximation is imposed on the reference-state amplitudes and multipliers. This yields an efficient, robust, practical, and numerically balanced EOM-CCSD framework for calculations of excitation and ionization energies as well as state and transition properties (e.g., spectral intensities, natural transition, and Dyson orbitals) from both the ground and excited states. The errors in absolute excitation/ionization energies relative to the experimental reference data are on the order of 0.2-3.0 eV, depending on the K-edge considered and on the basis set used, and the shifts are systematic for each edge. Compared to a previously proposed CVS scheme where CVS was applied as a posteriori projection only during the solution of the EOM eigenvalue equations, the new scheme is computationally cheaper. It also achieves better cancellation of errors, yielding similar spectral profiles but with absolute core excitation and ionization energies that are systematically closer to the corresponding experimental data. Among the presented results are calculations of transient-state X-ray absorption spectra, relevant for interpretation of UV-pump/X-ray probe experiments.