Grounded electronic state

Figure Al.6.13. (a) Potential energy curves for two electronic states. The vibrational wavefunctions of the excited electronic state and for the lowest level of the ground electronic state are shown superimposed, (b) Stick spectrum representing the Franck-Condon factors (the square of overlap integral) between the vibrational wavefiinction of the ground electronic state and the vibrational wavefiinctions of the excited electronic state (adapted from [3]).

As described at the end of section Al.6.1. in nonlinear spectroscopy a polarization is created in the material which depends in a nonlinear way on the strength of the electric field. As we shall now see, the microscopic description of this nonlinear polarization involves multiple interactions of the material with the electric field. The multiple interactions in principle contain infomiation on both the ground electronic state and excited electronic state dynamics, and for a molecule in the presence of solvent, infomiation on the molecule-solvent interactions. Excellent general introductions to nonlinear spectroscopy may be found in [35, 36 and 37]. Raman spectroscopy, described at the end of the previous section, is also a nonlinear spectroscopy, in the sense that it involves more than one interaction of light with the material, but it is a pathological example since the second interaction is tlirough spontaneous emission and therefore not proportional to a driving field... 

The object now will be to steer the wavefunction out of a specific exit chaimel on the ground electronic state, using the excited electronic state as an intennediate. Insofar as the control is achieved by transferring amplitude between two electronic states, all tire concepts regarding the central quantity introduced above will now come into play. 

Tannor D J, Rice S A and Weber P M 1985 Picosecond CARS as a probe of ground electronic state intramolecular vibrational redistribution J. Chem. Phys. 83 6158... 

Weitz E and Flynn G W 1981 Vibrational energy flow in the ground electronic states of polyatomic molecules Adv. Chem. Rhys. 47 185-235... 

The selection rule for vibronic states is then straightforward. It is obtained by exactly the same procedure as described above for the electronic selection rules. In particular, the lowest vibrational level of the ground electronic state of most stable polyatomic molecules will be totally synnnetric. Transitions originating in that vibronic level must go to an excited state vibronic level whose synnnetry is the same as one of the coordinates, v, y, or z. 

An interesting example occurs in the spectrum of the C2 molecule. The usual rule of absorption spectroscopy is that the transitions originate in the ground electronic state because only it has sufficient population. However, in C2 transitions were observed starting both from a fl state and from a jTstate, so it was not... 

The siim-over-states method for calculating the resonant enlrancement begins with an expression for the resonance Raman intensity, /.y, for the transition from initial state to final state /in the ground electronic state, and is given by [14]... 

We note that the expression in brackets is just the b c tensor element of the electronic polarizability in the ground electronic state,, (ttj)- Thus... 

Since the vibrational eigenstates of the ground electronic state constitute an orthonomial basis set, tire off-diagonal matrix elements in equation (B 1.3.14) will vanish unless the ground state electronic polarizability depends on nuclear coordinates. (This is the Raman analogue of the requirement in infrared spectroscopy that, to observe a transition, the electronic dipole moment in the ground electronic state must properly vary with nuclear displacements from... 

Figure Bl.3.5. Four WMEL diagrams for fiilly resonant Raman scattering (RRS). Diagrams (a) and (b) both have doorway stage rr(A.j2 ) (Figure B 1.3.4(a)), in which a vibrational coherence is created in the ground electronic state, g. For the window event in (a), field 1 promotes the bra from the ground electronic state, g, to...

Far-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy usually provide the most detailed picture of the vibration-rotation energy levels in the ground electronic state. However, they are not always possible and other spectroscopic methods are also important. 

Equations (C3.4.5) and (C3.4.6) cover the common case when all molecules are initially in their ground electronic state and able to accept excitation. The system is also assumed to be impinged upon by sources F. The latter are usually expressible as tlie product crfjo, where cr is an absorjition cross section, is tlie photon flux and ftois tlie population in tlie ground state. The common assumption is tliat Jo= q, i.e. practically all molecules are in tlie ground state because n n. This is tlie assumption of linear excitation, where tlie system exhibits a linear response to tlie excitation intensity. This assumption does not hold when tlie extent of excitation is significant, i.e. 

As was shown in the preceding discussion (see also Sections Vin and IX), the rovibronic wave functions for a homonuclear diatomic molecule under the permutation of identical nuclei are symmetric for even J rotational quantum numbers in and E electronic states antisymmeUic for odd J values in and E elecbonic states symmetric for odd J values in E and E electronic states and antisymmeteic for even J values in Ej and E+ electeonic states. Note that the vibrational ground state is symmetric under pemrutation of the two nuclei. The most restrictive result arises therefore when the nuclear spin quantum number of the individual nuclei is 0. In this case, the nuclear spin function is always symmetric with respect to interchange of the identical nuclei, and hence only totally symmeUic rovibronic states are allowed since the total wave function must be symmetric for bosonic systems. For example, the nucleus has zero nuclear spin, and hence the rotational levels with odd values of J do not exist for the ground electronic state f EJ") of Cr. 

However, drastic consequences may arise if the nuclear spin is 0 or In these cases, some rovibronic states cannot be observed since they are symmetry forbidden. For example, in the case of C 02, the nuclei are spinless and the nuclear spin function is symmetric under permutation of the oxygen nuclei. Since the ground electronic state is only even values of J exist for the ground vibrational level (vj, V3) = (OO O), where (vi,V2,V3) are the... 

Consider an N2 molecule, in the ground vibrational level of the ground electronic state, which is bombarded by 100 eV electrons. This leads to ionization of the N2 molecule to... 

An example of an El forbidden but "vibronically allowed" transition is provided by the singlet n ==> ti transition of H2CO that was discussed earlier in this section. As detailed there, the ground electronic state has Ai symmetry, and the n ==> 71 state is of 1A2 symmetry, so the El transition integral... 

The peak in the UV VIS spectrum of acetone [(CH3)2C=0] corresponding to the transition appears at 279 nm when hexane is the solvent but shifts to 262 nm in water Which is more polar the ground electronic state or the excited stated... 

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