Electronic and nuclear kinetic energy

The kinetic energy of the nuclei and electrons in field-free space may be written in the form 

In order to discuss the spectroscopic properties of diatomic molecules it is useful to transform the kinetic energy operators (2.5) or (2.6) so that the translational, rotational, vibrational, and electronic motions are separated, or at least partly separated. In this section we shall discuss transformations of the origin of the space-fixed axis system the following choices of origin have been discussed by various authors (see figure 2.1)  

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In these expressions written with use of so-called atomic units (elementary charge, electron mass and Planck constant are all equal to unity) RQs stand as previously for the spatial coordinates of the nuclei of atoms composing the system r) s for the spatial coordinates of electrons Mas are the nuclear masses Zas are the nuclear charges in the units of elementary charge. The meaning of the different contributions is as follows Te and Tn are respectively the electronic and nuclear kinetic energy operators, Vne is the operator of the Coulomb potential energy of attraction of electrons to nuclei, Vee is that of repulsion between electrons, and Vnn that of repulsion between the nuclei. Summations over a and ft extend to all nuclei in the (model) system and those over i and j to all electrons in it. 

In AIMD simulations, the total Hamiltonian indudes the dectronic and nuclear kinetic energies, Ke and K , the dec-tron-electron and nuclear-nuclear Coulomb repulsion, Vee and Vnn/ and the electron-nuclear Coulomb attraction, V. The dassical dynamics of the nudei is given by the equations of motion ... 

A enp is the change in the internal electronic kinetic and electronic and nuclear coulombic energy of the solute upon relaxation in solution, which is driven by the favorable electric polarization interaction with the solvent, while Cp is the electrostatic polarization free energy expressed in terms of the generalized Bom approximation (equation 40). 

Note the stnicPiral similarity between equation (A1.6.72) and equation (Al.6.41). witii and E being replaced by and the BO Hamiltonians governing the quanPim mechanical evolution in electronic states a and b, respectively. These Hamiltonians consist of a nuclear kinetic energy part and a potential energy part which derives from nuclear-electron attraction and nuclear-nuclear repulsion, which differs in the two electronic states. 

Here, t is the nuclear kinetic energy operator, and so all terms describing the electronic kinetic energy, electron-electron and electron-nuclear interactions, as well as the nuclear-nuclear interaction potential function, are collected together. This sum of terms is often called the clamped nuclei Hamiltonian as it describes the electrons moving around the nuclei at a particular configrrration R. 

In this picture, the nuclei are moving over a PES provided by the function V(R), driven by the nuclear kinetic energy operator, 7. More details on the derivation of this equation and its validity are given in Appendix A. The potential function is provided by the solutions to the electronic Schrddinger equation. 

Let US consider the simplified Hamiltonian in which the nuclear kinetic energy term is neglected. This also implies that the nuclei are fixed at a certain configuration, and the Hamiltonian describes only the electronic degrees of freedom. This electronic Hamiltonian is... 

We assume that the nuclei are so slow moving relative to electrons that we may regard them as fixed masses. This amounts to separation of the Schroedinger equation into two parts, one for nuclei and one for electrons. We then drop the nuclear kinetic energy operator, but we retain the intemuclear repulsion terms, which we know from the nuclear charges and the intemuclear distances. We retain all terms that involve electrons, including the potential energy terms due to attractive forces between nuclei and electrons and those due to repulsive forces... 

Replacing the nuclear and electronic momenta by the modifications shown above in the kinetic energy terms of the full electronic and nuclear-motion hamiltonian results in the following additional factors appearing in H ... 

Radiation Damage. It has been known for many years that bombardment of a crystal with energetic (keV to MeV) heavy ions produces regions of lattice disorder. An implanted ion entering a soHd with an initial kinetic energy of 100 keV comes to rest in the time scale of about 10 due to both electronic and nuclear coUisions. As an ion slows down and comes to rest in a crystal, it makes a number of coUisions with the lattice atoms. In these coUisions, sufficient energy may be transferred from the ion to displace an atom from its lattice site. Lattice atoms which are displaced by an incident ion are caUed primary knock-on atoms (PKA). A PKA can in turn displace other atoms, secondary knock-ons, etc. This process creates a cascade of atomic coUisions and is coUectively referred to as the coUision, or displacement, cascade. The disorder can be directiy observed by techniques sensitive to lattice stmcture, such as electron-transmission microscopy, MeV-particle channeling, and electron diffraction. 

The Hamiltonian for this system should include the kinetic and potential energy of the electron and both of the nuclei. However, since the electron mass is more than a thousand times smaller than that of the lightest nucleus, one can consider the nuclei to be effectively motionless relative to the quickly moving electron. This assumption, which is basically the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, allows one to write the Schroedinger equation neglecting the nuclear kinetic energy. For the Hj ion the Born-Oppenheimer Hamiltonian is... 

Therefore, the simplest classical treatment in which the propagator exp(it (T+V) ) is approximated in the product form exp(it (T) ) exp(it (V)/fc) and die nuclear kinetic energy T is conserved during the transition produces a nonsensical approximation to the non BO rate. This should not be surprising because (a) In the photon absorption case, the photon induces a transition in the electronic degrees of freedom which subsequently cause changes in the vibration-rotation energy, while (b) in the non BO case, the electronic and vibration-... 

The derivative (nonadiabatic) coupling, ffy, is the term neglected in the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation that is responsible for nonadiabatic transitions between different states I and. /. It originates from the nuclear kinetic energy operator operating on the electronic wavefunctions ijf] and is given by... 

Both of these matrix elements are readily computed analytically (the subscript R denotes integration over the nuclear coordinates and by definition Su and S/y vanish for / / J). In Eq. (2.11), H/y is the full Hamiltonian matrix including both electronic and nuclear terms. Each matrix element of H is written as the sum of the nuclear kinetic energy (7r) and the electronic Hamiltonian (He)... 

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