Contribution of molecular displacements to linear and nonlinear electric susceptibilities of molecular crystals.

Expressions are derived for additional contributions to the linear, quadratic, and cubic electric susceptibilities of molecular crystals that arise when molecules are displaced by the applied electric field. The contributions depend on quantities related to the infrared intensity of lattice vibrations, to the Raman intensity of lattice vibrations, and to the intensity of hyper-Rayleigh scattering. Some nonlinear contributions are zero except for response to a static electric field applied directly or produced by optical rectification. There are also contributions from averaging the susceptibilities in the equilibrium structure over the lattice modes.

Theory of piezoelectricity, electrostriction, and pyroelectricity in molecular crystals.

A microscopic theory is presented for piezoelectricity, electrostriction, and pyroelectricity in molecular crystals. The required coefficients are derived by combining a theoretical treatment of the dependence of molecular dipole moments on molecular displacement and a generalized elastic theory for internal strain.

Molecules as electronic components?

Aspects of electronics at the molecular level are reviewed. Molecules can store information in their different states. To transmit information, they need to interact with other molecules, but this affects the states. Excitation transfer is also more complex than sometimes realised. Information processing is best treated in terms of the whole system of interacting molecules, so that molecules cannot be treated simply as small conventional electronic components.

Energy of charged states in the RDX crystal: trapping of charge-transfer pairs as a possible mechanism for initiating detonation.

Calculations for the crystalline energetic material RDX (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane) yield the effective polarizability (17.2 angstroms3), local electric field tensor, effective dipole moment (9.40 D), and dipole-dipole energy (-27.2 kJ/mol). Fourier-transform techniques give the polarization energy P for a single charge in the perfect crystal as -1.14 eV; the charge-dipole energy W(D) is zero if the crystal carries no bulk dipole moment. Polarization energies for charge-transfer (CT) pairs combine with the Coulomb energy E(C) to give the screened Coulomb energy E(scr); screening is nearly isotropic with E(scr) approximately = E(C)2.6. For CT pairs W(D) reduces to a term deltaW(D) arising from the interaction of the charge on each ion with the change in dipole moment on the other ion relative to the neutral molecule. The dipole moments are calculated as 7.40 D for the neutral molecule and 6.84 D and 7.44 D for the anion and cation, giving the lowest two CT pairs at -1.34 eV and -0.94 eV. The changes in P and W(D) near a molecular vacancy yield traps with depths that reach 400 meV for single charges and 185 meV for the nearest-neighbor CT pair. Divacancies yield traps with depths nearly equal to the sum of those produced by the separate vacancies. These results are consistent with a mechanism in which detonation of RDX is initiated by mechanical generation of CT pairs that localize at vacancies, recombine, and release energy sufficient to break bonds; crystals of molecules with lower dipole moments should be less sensitive.

Monte Carlo simulation of Li+ motion in polyethylene based on polarization energy calculations and informed by data compression analysis.

We present an n-fold way kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of the hopping motion of Li+ ions in polyethylene on a grid of mesh 0.36 A superimposed on the voids of the rigid polymer. The structure of the polymer is derived from a higher-order simulation, and the energy of the ion at each site is derived by the self-consistent polarization field method. The ion motion evolves in time from free flight through anomalous diffusion to normal diffusion, with the average energy tending to decrease with increasing temperature through thermal annealing. We compare the results with those of hopping models with probabilistic energy distributions of increasing complexity by analyzing the mean-square displacement and the average energy of an ensemble of ions. The Gumbel distribution describes the ion energy statistics in this system better than the usual Gaussian distribution does; including energy correlation greatly affects the ion dynamics. The analysis uses the standard data compression program GZIP, which proves to be a powerful tool for data analysis by giving a measure of recurrences in the ion path.

Energy of charged states in the acetanilide crystal: trapping of charge-transfer states at vacancies as a possible mechanism for optical damage.

Calculations for the acetanilide crystal yield the effective polarizability (16.6 A(3)), local electric field tensor, effective dipole moment (5.41 D), and dipole-dipole energy (-12.8 kJ/mol). Fourier-transform techniques are used to calculate the polarization energy P for a single charge in the perfect crystal (-1.16 eV); the charge-dipole energy W(D) is zero if the crystal carries no bulk dipole moment. Polarization energies for charge-transfer (CT) pairs combine with the Coulomb energy E(C) to give the screened Coulomb energy E(scr); screening is nearly isotropic, with E(scr) approximately E(C)/2.7. For CT pairs W(D) reduces to a term deltaW(D) arising from the interaction of the charge on each ion with the change in dipole moment on the other ion relative to the neutral molecule. The dipole moments calculated by density-functional theory methods with the B3LYP functional at the 6-311++G(**) level are 3.62 D for the neutral molecule, changing to 7.13 D and 4.38 D for the anion and cation, relative to the center of mass. Because of the large change in the anion, deltaW(D) reaches -0.9 eV and modifies the sequence of CT energies markedly from that of E(scr), giving the lowest two CT pairs at -1.98 eV and -1.41 eV. The changes in P and W(D) near a vacancy are calculated; W(D) changes for the individual charges because the vacancy removes a dipole moment and modifies the crystal dielectric response, but deltaW(D) and E(C) do not change. A vacancy yields a positive change DeltaP that scatters a charge or CT pair, but the change DeltaW(D) can be negative and large enough to outweigh DeltaP, yielding traps with depths that can exceed 150 meV for single charges and for CT pairs. Divacancies yield traps with depths nearly equal to the sum of those produced by the separate vacancies and so they can exceed 300 meV. These results are consistent with a mechanism of optical damage in which vacancies trap optically generated CT pairs that recombine and release energy; this can disrupt the lattice around the vacancy, thereby favoring trapping and recombination of CT pairs generated by subsequent photon absorption, leading to further lattice disruption. Revisions to previous calculations on trapping of CT pairs in anthracene are reported.

Microscopic calculation of the energetics of charged states in amorphous polyethylene.

Polarization energies are calculated for a single excess charge on a polyethylene chain in amorphous polyethylene using (i) local segment and nonlocal distributed molecular polarizabilities, (ii) material structures simulated by both general-purpose and specialist Monte Carlo software, and (iii) uniform and Gaussian distributions of charge with different extents of charge delocalization. Local and distributed response lead to results that are essentially the same except that they correspond to different mean polarizabilities. With increasing delocalization of the charge along the chain, the polarization energies shift to higher values and the width of their distribution decreases, the differences being more pronounced for the uniform distribution. The polarization energies for charges delocalized over 10-20 methylene units form a distribution some 14 eV wide centered around 1 eV, narrowing significantly for more homogeneous polymer melts. The calculations are relevant to trapping of charge in polyethylene. They also yield the microscopic variation in the potential along the polymer chain caused by the polarization energy difference, and so may provide useful inputs to theories of electronic conduction in polymer materials.

A test of the method of images at the surface of molecular materials.

The method of images is tested by comparing two ways of calculating the polarization energy in crystalline fullerene C60 and in bulk amorphous polyethylene (PE): (i) treating the whole molecular material microscopically, and (ii) replacing part of the material by a uniform dielectric continuum of the same relative permittivity. The method of images is accurate to within 5% once the distance of the charge from the surface of the dielectric continuum exceeds about twice the average spacing between the polarizable units in the molecular material. For C60 crystals the method of images always overestimates the magnitude of the polarization energy, partly because it ignores the reduction in the relative permittivity of the dielectric continuum near its surface. For amorphous PE the method of images can overestimate or underestimate the true result, depending on the local density around the charge.

Distributed polarizability analysis for para-nitroaniline and meta-nitroaniline: functional group and charge-transfer contributions.

Topological partitioning of electronic properties is used to investigate the polarizability of para-nitroaniline and meta-nitroaniline. The distributed polarizabilities for atoms are combined into total local or generalized distributed contributions for the amino, ring, and nitro functional groups; generalized distributed group contributions have not been calculated before. The local group contributions are transferable between the two molecules only when charge transfer is suppressed, but the generalized distributed contributions prove surprisingly similar in the two molecules, apparently because they treat charge-transfer contributions explicitly.

CNDO molecular orbital calculations on porphyrins--I. Ground and excited states of porphyrin, divinylporphyrin and tetraphenylporphyrin.

Semi-empirical CNDO/2 MO calculations are reported for the ground states of porphyrin, 2,4-divinylporphyrin (DVP), and alpha, beta, gamma, delta-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP). Results for TPP refer to the conformation with all phenyl groups perpendicular to the porphyrin ring, calculated to be 108 kJ mol-1 more stable than the coplanar conformation. The substituents withdraw electron density where they are attached to the porphyrin ring, increasing selected orbital energies. The vinyl groups also modify the electron population at nitrogen. CNDO/S calculations with extensive configuration interaction are reported for excited states. The lowest singlet states are closely similar in energy and composition for all three molecules, except for an extra state and more complex compositions in DVP above 3 eV. The lowest triplet states of porphyrin and DVP are very similar, while those of TPP are comparable in energy or composition but not both. Experimental data on the excited states are broadly consistent with the calculations, although comparisons for the excited triplets are tentative.

CNDO molecular orbital calculations on porphyrins--II. Ground states of dilithium and disodium porphyrin.

CNDO/2 calculations are reported for dilithium and disodium porphyrin. The total energy is calculated as a function of the metal-ring distance for symmetrical (D4h) structures. For dilithium porphyrin, the equilibrium metal-ring distance is 0.87 A and the metal-metal vibrational frequency is 123 cm-1. For disodium porphyrin, the distance is 1.64 A and the frequency is 77 cm -1. Little mixing of metal and porphyrin orbitals takes place; the two lowest unoccupied and the two highest occupied MOs hardly differ from those in porphyrin, but lower MOs are considerably rearranged.