Excitation and fragmentation of the dielectric gas C4F7N: Electrons vs photons.

C4F7N is a promising candidate for the replacement of sulfur hexafluoride as an insulating medium, and it is important to understand the chemical changes initiated in the molecule by collision with free electrons, specifically the formation of neutral fragments. The first step of neutral fragmentation is electronic excitation, yet neither the absorption spectrum in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region nor the electron energy loss spectrum have previously been reported. Here, we experimentally probed the excited states by VUV photoabsorption spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). We found that the distribution of states populated upon electron impact with low-energy electrons is significantly different from that following photoabsorption. This difference was confirmed and interpreted with ab initio modeling of both VUV and EELS spectra. We propose here a new computational protocol for the simulation of EELS spectra combining the Born approximation with approximate forms of correlated wave functions, which allows us to calculate the (usually very expensive) scattering cross sections at a cost similar to the calculation of oscillator strengths. Finally, we perform semi-classical non-adiabatic dynamics simulations to investigate the possible neutral fragments of the molecule formed through electron-induced neutral dissociation. We show that the product distribution is highly non-statistical.

Photochemical Ring-Opening Reaction of 1,3-Cyclohexadiene: Identifying the True Reactive State.

The photochemically induced ring-opening isomerization reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene to 1,3,5-hexatriene is a textbook example of a pericyclic reaction and has been amply investigated with advanced spectroscopic techniques. The main open question has been the identification of the single reactive state which drives the process. The generally accepted description of the isomerization pathway starts with a valence excitation to the lowest lying bright state, followed by a passage through a conical intersection to the lowest lying doubly excited state, and finally a branching between either the return to the ground state of the cyclic molecule or the actual ring-opening reaction leading to the open-chain isomer. Here, in a joint experimental and computational effort, we demonstrate that the evolution of the excitation-deexcitation process is much more complex than that usually described. In particular, we show that an initially high-lying electronic state smoothly decreasing in energy along the reaction path plays a key role in the ring-opening reaction.

Discrimination of Excited States of Acetylacetone through Theoretical Molecular-Frame Photoelectron Angular Distributions.

Photoelectron angular distribution (PAD) in the laboratory frame for randomly oriented molecules is typically described by a single anisotropy parameter, the so-called asymmetry parameter. However, especially from a theoretical perspective, it is more natural to consider molecular photoionization by using a molecular frame. The molecular frame PADs (MFPADs) may be used to extract information about the electronic structure of the system studied. In the last decade, significant experimental efforts have been directed to MFPAD measurements. MFPADs are highly characterizing signatures of the final ionic states. In particular, they are very sensitive to the nature of the final state, which is embodied in the corresponding Dyson orbital. In our previous work on acetylacetone, a prototype system for studying intra-molecular hydrogen bond interactions, we followed the dynamics of the excited states involved in the photoexcitation-deexcitation process of this molecule. It remains to be explored the possibility of discriminating between different excited states through the MFPAD profiles. The calculation of MFPADs to differentiate excited states can pave the way to the possibility of a clear discrimination for all the cases where the recognition of excited states is otherwise intricate.

Combined Surface-Hopping, Dyson Orbital, and B-Spline Approach for the Computation of Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy Signals: The Internal Conversion in Pyrazine.

A computational protocol for simulating time-resolved photoelectron signals of medium-sized molecules is presented. The procedure is based on a trajectory surface-hopping description of the excited-state dynamics and a combined Dyson orbital and multicenter B-spline approach for the computation of cross sections and asymmetry parameters. The accuracy of the procedure has been illustrated for the case of ultrafast internal conversion of gas-phase pyrazine excited to the 1B2u(ππ*) state. The simulated spectra and the asymmetry map are compared to the experimental data, and a very good agreement was obtained without applying any energy-dependent rescaling or broadening. An interesting side result of this work is the finding that the signature of the 1Au(nπ*) state is indistinguishable from that of the 1B3u(nπ*) state in the time-resolved photoelectron spectrum. By locating four symmetrically equivalent minima on the lowest-excited (S1) adiabatic potential energy surface of pyrazine, we revealed the strong vibronic coupling of the 1Au(nπ*) and 1B3u(nπ*) states near the S1 ← S0 band origin.

Toward Understanding Optical Properties of Amyloids: A Reaction Path and Nonadiabatic Dynamics Study.

Amyloids have unique structural, chemical, and optical properties. Although much theoretical effort has been directed toward understanding amyloid nucleation, the understanding of their optical properties has remained rather limited. In particular, the photophysical mechanisms leading to near-UV excitation and characteristic blue-green luminescence in amyloid systems devoid of aromatic amino acids have not been resolved. We use ab initio static calculations and nonadiabatic dynamics simulations to study the excited electronic states of model amyloid-like peptides. We show that their photophysics is essentially governed by the multitude of nπ* states with excitation localized on the amide groups. The strong stabilization of the nπ* states with respect to the amide group deplanarization and the concomitant increase of the oscillator strength make excitation in the near-UV possible. With respect to emission, our dynamics simulations revealed that the amyloid cross ß arrangement effectively hinders the nonradiative relaxation channels usually operative in proteins. Finally, we show that after relaxation of the photoexcited peptides toward the minimum of the different nπ* states, fluorescence takes place in the visible (green) part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

UV absorption spectra of DNA bases in the 350-190 nm range: assignment and state specific analysis of solvation effects.

The theoretical assignment of electronic spectra of polyatomic molecules is a challenging problem that requires the specification of the character of a large number of electronic states. We propose a procedure for automatically determining the character of electronic transitions and apply it to the study of UV spectra of DNA bases in the gas phase and in the aqueous environment. The procedure is based on the computation of electronic wave function overlaps and accounts for an extensive sampling of nuclear geometries. Novelties of this work are the theoretical assignment of the electronic spectra of DNA bases up to 190 nm and a state specific analysis of solvation effects. By accounting for different effects contributing to the total solvent shift we obtained a good agreement between the computed and experimental spectra. Effects of vibrational averaging, temperature and solvent-induced structural changes shift excitation energies to lower values. Solvent-solute electrostatic interactions are state specific and strongly destabilize nRyd states, and to lesser extent nπ* and πRyd states. Altogether, this results in the stabilization of ππ* states and destabilization of nπ*, πRyd and nRyd states in solution.

Highly Efficient Algorithms for CIS Type Excited State Wave Function Overlaps.

Two algorithms for calculating overlaps between CIS (or TDDFT) type excited state wave functions are presented, one based on an expansion of overlap determinants into level 2 minors (OL2M) and the other based on an expansion of the wave functions into natural transition orbitals (ONTO). Both algorithms are significantly faster than previously available algorithms, with the ONTO algorithm reducing the cost of a single overlap element calculation by a factor of the square of the number of occupied orbitals in the system. The algorithm exhibits orders of magnitude faster calculations for large systems and significantly increases the size of systems for which TDDFT based nonadiabatic dynamics simulations can be performed. The OL2M algorithm is substantially slower for a single overlap matrix element but becomes preferred when overlaps between large numbers of states are required. Additionally, we test the accuracy of approximate overlaps calculated using truncated wave functions and show that truncation can lead to large errors in the overlaps. Lastly, we provide examples of applications for wave function overlaps outside the context of nonadiabatic dynamics.

Assessing the performance of trajectory surface hopping methods: Ultrafast internal conversion in pyrazine.

Trajectory surface hopping (TSH) methods have been widely used to study photoinduced nonadiabatic processes. In the present study, nonadiabatic dynamics simulations with the widely used Tully's fewest switches surface hopping (FSSH) algorithm and a Landau-Zener-type TSH (LZSH) algorithm have been performed for the internal conversion dynamics of pyrazine. The accuracy of the two TSH algorithms has been critically evaluated by a direct comparison with exact quantum dynamics calculations for a model of pyrazine. The model comprises the three lowest excited electronic states (B3u(nπ*), A1u(nπ*), and B2u(ππ*)) and the nine most relevant vibrational degrees of freedom. Considering photoexcitation to the diabatic B2u(ππ*) state, we examined the time-dependent diabatic and adiabatic electronic population dynamics. It is found that the diabatic populations obtained with both TSH methods are in good agreement with the exact quantum results. Fast population oscillations between the B3u(nπ*) and A1u(nπ*) states, which reflect nonadiabatic electronic transitions driven by coherent dynamics in the normal mode Q8a, are qualitatively reproduced by both TSH methods. In addition to the model study, the TSH methods have been interfaced with the second-order algebraic diagrammatic construction ab initio electronic-structure method to perform full-dimensional on-the-fly nonadiabatic dynamics simulations for pyrazine. It is found that the electronic population dynamics obtained with the LZSH method is in excellent agreement with that obtained by the FSSH method using a local diabatization algorithm. Moreover, the electronic populations of the full-dimensional on-the-fly calculations are in excellent agreement with the populations of the three-state nine-mode model, which confirms that the internal conversion dynamics of pyrazine is accurately represented by this reduced-dimensional model on the time scale under consideration (200 fs). The original FSSH method, in which the electronic wave function is propagated in the adiabatic representation, yields less accurate results. The oscillations in the populations of the diabatic B3u(nπ*) and A1u(nπ*) states driven by the mode Q8a are also observed in the full-dimensional dynamics simulations.

Fine-tuning the effect of π-π interactions on the stability of the NTB phase.

The synthesis and liquid-crystalline properties are reported for novel bent-shaped dimers in which a naphthyl group has been incorporated into the mesogenic cores. In addition to the nematic and twist-bend nematic phase, a new liquid-crystalline phase was observed. The combined experimental and computational study demonstrated how the interplay between the molecular geometry and π-π interactions affects the thermal stability of the twist-bend nematic and nematic phases. Correlation between mesomorphic properties and molecular geometry revealed that a greater conformational diversity leads to a broader distribution of bend-angles and destabilization of the NTB phase. Qualitative correlation between the thermal behaviour and electronic structure of the molecules of a similar geometry suggested that the transition temperatures of both nematic phases depend on the relative contribution of dispersion and electrostatic energies which determines the strength of the π-π interactions. These results provide an insight into how subtle changes in chemical structure can be exploited to tune the intermolecular interactions and influence the thermal stability of the liquid crystalline phase.

Induced smectic phase in binary mixtures of twist-bend nematogens.

The investigation of liquid crystal (LC) mixtures is of great interest in tailoring material properties for specific applications. The recent discovery of the twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) has sparked great interest in the scientific community, not only from a fundamental viewpoint, but also due to its potential for innovative applications. Here we report on the unexpected phase behaviour of a binary mixture of twist-bend nematogens. A binary phase diagram for mixtures of imino-linked cyanobiphenyl (CBI) dimer and imino-linked benzoyloxy-benzylidene (BB) dimer shows two distinct domains. While mixtures containing less than 35 mol % of BB possess a wide temperature range twist-bend nematic phase, the mixtures containing 55-80 mol % of BB exhibit a smectic phase despite that both pure compounds display a Iso-N-NTB-Cr phase sequence. The phase diagram shows that the addition of BB of up to 30 mol % significantly extends the temperature range of the NTB phase, maintaining the temperature range of the nematic phase. The periodicity, obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging, is in the range of 6-7 nm. The induction of the smectic phase in the mixtures containing 55-80 mol % of BB was confirmed using polarising optical microscopy (POM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction. The origin of the intercalated smectic phase was unravelled by combined spectroscopic and computational methods and can be traced to conformational disorder of the terminal chains. These results show the importance of understanding the phase behaviour of binary mixtures, not only in targeting a wide temperature range but also in controlling the self-organizing processes.

Photoionization of furan from the ground and excited electronic states.

Here we present a comparative computational study of the photoionization of furan from the ground and the two lowest-lying excited electronic states. The study aims to assess the quality of the computational methods currently employed for treating bound and continuum states in photoionization. For the ionization from the ground electronic state, we show that the Dyson orbital approach combined with an accurate solution of the continuum one particle wave functions in a multicenter B-spline basis, at the density functional theory (DFT) level, provides cross sections and asymmetry parameters in excellent agreement with experimental data. On the contrary, when the Dyson orbitals approach is combined with the Coulomb and orthogonalized Coulomb treatments of the continuum, the results are qualitatively different. In excited electronic states, three electronic structure methods, TDDFT, ADC(2), and CASSCF, have been used for the computation of the Dyson orbitals, while the continuum was treated at the B-spline/DFT level. We show that photoionization observables are sensitive probes of the nature of the excited states as well as of the quality of excited state wave functions. This paves the way for applications in more complex situations such as time resolved photoionization spectroscopy.

Exploration of Excited State Deactivation Pathways of Adenine Monohydrates.

Binding of a single water molecule has a dramatic effect on the excited state lifetime of adenine. Here we report a joint nonadiabatic dynamics and reaction paths study aimed at understanding the sub-100 fs lifetime of adenine in the monohydrates. Our nonadiabatic dynamics simulations, performed using the ADC(2) electronic structure method, show a shortening of the excited state lifetime in the monohydrates with respect to bare adenine. However, the computed lifetimes were found to be significantly longer that the observed one. By comparing the reaction pathways of several excited state deactivation processes in adenine and adenine monohydrates, we show that electron-driven proton transfer from water to nitrogen atom N3 of the adenine ring may be the process responsible for the observed ultrafast decay. The inaccessibility of the electron-driven proton transfer pathway to trajectory-based nonadiabatic dynamics simulation is discussed.

Timescales of N-H bond dissociation in pyrrole: a nonadiabatic dynamics study.

The excitation wavelength dependent photodynamics of pyrrole are investigated by nonadiabatic trajectory-surface-hopping dynamics simulations based on time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and the algebraic diagrammatic construction method to the second order (ADC(2)). The ADC(2) results confirm that the N-H bond dissociation occurring upon excitation at the origin of the first excited state, S1(πσ*), is driven by tunnelling [Roberts et al., Faraday Discuss., 2013, 163, 95] as a barrier of ΔE = 1780 cm(-1) traps the population in a quasi-bound minimum. Upon excitation to S1(πσ*) in the wavelength range of 236-240 nm, direct dissociation of the N-H bond takes place with a time constant of 28 fs. The computed time constant is in very good agreement with recently reported measurements. Excitation to the lowest B2 state in the 198-202 nm range returns a time constant for N-H fission of 48 fs at the B3LYP/def2-TZVPD level, in perfect agreement with the experiment [Roberts et al. Faraday Discuss., 2013, 163, 95]. For the same wavelength range the ADC(2)/aug-cc-pVDZ decay constant is more than three times longer than the experimentally reported one. The accuracy of the B3LYP/def2-TZVPD dynamics is checked against reference complete-active-space second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) calculations and explained in terms of correct topography of the ππ* surface and the lack of mixing between the ππ* and the 3px Rydberg states which occurs in the ADC(2) method.