Molecular eigenstates calculation

From theoretical discussions involving the molecular eigenstates picture questions have arisen as to whether particular quantum mechanical interference effects can be observed by the use of suitably monochromatic radiation for excitation of the molecules 13>. (See Sect. 7.) Of course, it is also necessary to settle the controversies as to whether the BO or molecular eigenstates are correct, and if the former is indeed correct, which particular version of the BO approximation is to be employed for the calculation of nonradiative decay rates. 

Starting from the potential energy surface, supposed already known, the calculation of the spectrum Implies the determination of the molecular eigenstates and eigenvalues. The direct dlagonallzatlon of the hamlltonlan matrix Is limited to a small subspace ( typically 10 ) of the total basis set. Higher excited states must be computed through C.I type techniques 2. ... 

The calculation of the molecular eigenstates with the MVCM model, necessary in traditional time-independent methods, can prove to be very cumbersome or even unfeasible. However, time-independent effective solutions, practicable for reduced-dimensionality models (in practice when the number of relevant normal coordinates is less than 10), may be obtained by taking advantage of the Lanczos iterative tridiagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix [130]. The Lanczos algorithm proves to be very suitable for the computation of low-resolution spectra however, its effectiveness is better highlighted in a time-dependent framework. In fact, it can be easily realized that Lanczos states are only sequentially coupled, and it is therefore clear that only a limited number of states is necessary to describe short-time dynamics since the latter is the only relevant information for low-resolution spectra (see Chapter 10). 

Owing to the coherence, we need to consider the macroscopic evolution of the field in a medium that shows a macroscopic polarization induced by the field-matter interaction. This will be done in three steps. First, the polarization induced by an arbitrary field will be calculated and expanded in power series in the field, the coefficients of the expansion being the material susceptibilities (frequency domain) or response function (time domain) of wth-order. Nonlinear Raman effects appear at third order in this expansion. Second, the perturbation theory derivation of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility in terms of molecular eigenstates and transition moments will be outlined, leading to a connection with the spontaneous Raman scattering tensor components. Last, the interaction of the initial field distribution with the created polarization will be evaluated and the signal expression obtained for the relevant techniques of Table 1. 

The application of quantum-mechanical methods to the prediction of electronic structure has yielded much detailed information about atomic and molecular properties.13 Particularly in the past few years, the availability of high-speed computers with large storage capacities has made it possible to examine both atomic and molecular systems using an ab initio variational approach wherein no empirical parameters are employed.14 Variational calculations for molecules employ a Hamiltonian based on the nonrelativistic electrostatic nuclei-electron interaction and a wave function formed by antisymmetrizing a suitable many-electron function of spatial and spin coordinates. For most applications it is also necessary that the wave function represent a particular spin eigenstate and that it have appropriate geometric symmetry. 

Nano-scale and molecular-scale systems are naturally described by discrete-level models, for example eigenstates of quantum dots, molecular orbitals, or atomic orbitals. But the leads are very large (infinite) and have a continuous energy spectrum. To include the lead effects systematically, it is reasonable to start from the discrete-level representation for the whole system. It can be made by the tight-binding (TB) model, which was proposed to describe quantum systems in which the localized electronic states play an essential role, it is widely used as an alternative to the plane wave description of electrons in solids, and also as a method to calculate the electronic structure of molecules in quantum chemistry. 

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