Diatomic molecule vibrational motion

The representation as a two-dimensional potential energy diagram is simple for diatomic molecules. But for polyatomic molecules, vibrational motion is more complex. If the vibrations are assumed to be simple harmonic, the net vibrational motion of TV-atomic molecule can be resolved into 3TV-6 components termed normal modes of ibrations (3TV-5 for... 

Figure 9.3 Potential energy (E) of diatomic molecule vibration. For a small displacement vibration (Ar), the vibration motion can be treated as harmonic. Quantum theory divides the potential energy of vibration into several levels as v0, v, v2, v3,. ..

We will consider a simple diatomic molecule first, then generalize our final equations for a polyatomic molecule that has 3N — 6 (or 3N — 5 for linear molecules) vibrational motions, where N is the number of atoms in the molecule. If we make the assumption that the single vibration of a diatomic molecule is an ideal harmonic oscillator, then quantum mechanics gives us an equation for the quantized energy of that harmonic oscillator ... 

Even with these complications due to anliannonicity, tlie vibrating diatomic molecule is a relatively simple mechanical system. In polyatomics, the problem is fiindamentally more complicated with the presence of more than two atoms. The anliannonicity leads to many extremely interestmg effects in tlie internal molecular motion, including the possibility of chaotic dynamics. 

Figure Al.2.2. Internal nuclear motions of a diatomic molecule. Top the molecule in its equilibrium configuration. Middle vibration of the molecule. Bottom rotation of the molecule.

Consider a gas of N non-interacting diatomic molecules moving in a tln-ee-dimensional system of volume V. Classically, the motion of a diatomic molecule has six degrees of freedom—tln-ee translational degrees corresponding to the centre of mass motion, two more for the rotational motion about the centre of mass and one additional degree for the vibrational motion about the centre of mass. The equipartition law gives (... 

These results do not agree with experimental results. At room temperature, while the translational motion of diatomic molecules may be treated classically, the rotation and vibration have quantum attributes. In addition, quantum mechanically one should also consider the electronic degrees of freedom. However, typical electronic excitation energies are very large compared to k T (they are of the order of a few electronvolts, and 1 eV corresponds to 10 000 K). Such internal degrees of freedom are considered frozen, and an electronic cloud in a diatomic molecule is assumed to be in its ground state f with degeneracy g. The two nuclei A and... 

Figure C3.5.7. Possible modes of vibrational wavepacket (smootli Gaussian curve) motion for a highly vibrationally excited diatomic molecule produced by photodissociation of a linear triatomic such as Hglj, from [8].

If the rotational motion of the molecules is assumed to be entirely unhindered (e.g., by any environment or by collisions with other molecules), it is appropriate to express the time dependence of each of the dipole time correlation functions listed above in terms of a "free rotation" model. For example, when dealing with diatomic molecules, the electronic-vibrational-rotational C(t) appropriate to a specific electronic-vibrational transition becomes ... 

Just as the electrical behaviour of a real diatomic molecule is not accurately harmonic, neither is its mechanical behaviour. The potential function, vibrational energy levels and wave functions shown in Figure f.i3 were derived by assuming that vibrational motion obeys Hooke s law, as expressed by Equation (1.63), but this assumption is reasonable only... 

Infrared spectroscopy has broad appHcations for sensitive molecular speciation. Infrared frequencies depend on the masses of the atoms iavolved ia the various vibrational motions, and on the force constants and geometry of the bonds connecting them band shapes are determined by the rotational stmcture and hence by the molecular symmetry and moments of iaertia. The rovibrational spectmm of a gas thus provides direct molecular stmctural information, resulting ia very high specificity. The vibrational spectmm of any molecule is unique, except for those of optical isomers. Every molecule, except homonuclear diatomics such as O2, N2, and the halogens, has at least one vibrational absorption ia the iafrared. Several texts treat iafrared iastmmentation and techniques (22,36—38) and thek appHcations (39—42). 

Molecules vibrate at characteristic frequencies, which depend both on the difficulty of the motion (the so-called force constant) and on the masses of the atoms involved. The more difficult the motion and the lighter the atomic masses, the higher the vibrational frequency. For a diatomic molecule the vibrational frequency is proportional to ... 

We now need to investigate the quantum-mechanical treatment of vibrational motion. Consider then a diatomic molecule with reduced mass /c- His time-independent Schrodinger equation is... 

The discussion of the previous section amounts to a qualitative treatment of harmonic vibrational motion. The harmonic potential function on which the molecule vibrates has been described in terms of displacement of bond stretches from the equilibrium configuration for the diatomic molecule for water, displacement of... 

Figure 1. Translation, rotation, and vibration of a diatomic molecule. Every molecule has three translational degrees of freedom corresponding to motion of the center of mass of the molecule in the three Cartesian directions (left side). Diatomic and linear molecules also have two rotational degrees of freedom, about rotational axes perpendicular to the bond (center). Non-linear molecules have three rotational degrees of freedom. Vibrations involve no net momentum or angular momentum, instead corresponding to distortions of the internal structure of the molecule (right side). Diatomic molecules have one vibration, polyatomic linear molecules have 3V-5 vibrations, and nonlinear molecules have 3V-6 vibrations. Equilibrium stable isotope fractionations are driven mainly by the effects of isotopic substitution on vibrational frequencies.

The electronic contributions to the g factors arise in second-order perturbation theory from the perturbation of the electronic motion by the vibrational or rotational motion of the nuclei [19,26]. This non-adiabatic coupling of nuclear and electronic motion, which exemplifies a breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, leads to a mixing of the electronic ground state with excited electronic states of appropriate symmetry. The electronic contribution to the vibrational g factor of a diatomic molecule is then given as a sum-over-excited-states expression... 

The vibrational motion of atoms in diatomic molecules and, by extension, in crystals cannot be fully assimilated to harmonic oscillators, because the potential well is asymmetric with respect to Xq. This asymmetry is due to the fact that the short-range repulsive potential increases exponentially with the decrease of interionic distances, while coulombic terms vary with 1/Z (see, for instance, figures 1.13 and 3.2). To simulate adequately the asymmetry of the potential well, empirical asymmetry terms such as the Morse potential are introduced ... 

The extension of the quantum-mechanic interpretation of the vibrational motion of atoms to a crystal lattice is obtained by extrapolating the properties of the diatomic molecule. In this case there are 3 ( independent harmonic oscillators (9l is here the number of atoms in the primitive unit cell—e.g., fayalite has four... 

Problem 7-8. Consider the case of a heteronuclear diatomic molecule constrained to move in one dimension. Let the masses of the nuclei be denoted by m and M, and the force constant by k. Set up and solve the secular equation determine that the allowed modes of motion are the overall translation and vibration. Determine the vibrational frequency in terms of m, M and k. 

Thus far, exactly soluble model problems that represent one or more aspects of an atom or molecule s quantum-state structure have been introduced and solved. For example, electronic motion in polyenes was modeled by a particle-in-a-box. The harmonic oscillator and rigid rotor were introduced to model vibrational and rotational motion of a diatomic molecule. 

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