QM/MM optimization with quantum coupling: Host-guest interactions in a pentacene-doped p-terphenyl crystal.

In this work, we present a novel force-based scheme to perform hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) computations. The proposed scheme becomes especially relevant for the simulation of host-guest molecular systems, where the description of the explicit electronic interactions between a guest molecule and a classically described host is of key importance. To illustrate its advantages, we utilize the presented scheme in the geometry optimization of a technologically important host-guest molecular system: a pentacene-doped p-terphenyl crystal, a core component of a room-temperature MASER device. We show that, as opposed to the simpler and widely used hybrid scheme ONIOM, our Quantum-Coupling QM/MM scheme was able to reproduce explicit interactions in the minimum energy configuration for the host-guest complex. We also show that, as a result of these explicit interactions, the host-guest complex exhibits an oriented net electric dipole moment that is responsible for red-shifting the energy of the first singlet-singlet electronic excitation of pentacene.

Molecular conduction: do time-dependent simulations tell you more than the Landauer approach?

A dynamical method for simulating steady-state conduction in atomic and molecular wires is presented which is both computationally and conceptually simple. The method is tested by calculating the current-voltage spectrum of a simple diatomic molecular junction, for which the static Landauer approach produces multiple steady-state solutions. The dynamical method quantitatively reproduces the static results and provides information on the stability of the different solutions.