Nonadiabatic processes ultrafast dynamics

First, we consider a schematic example to illustrate how the cation electronic structures can be used in (angle integrated) TRPES to disentangle electronic from vibrational dynamics in ultrafast nonadiabatic processes, depicted in Fig. 2. A zeroth- order bright state, a, is coherently prepared with a femtosecond pump pulse. According to the Koopmans picture [13, 41, 42], it should ionize into the a+ continuum, the electronic state of the cation obtained upon removal of the outermost valence electron (here chosen to be... 

The Cl of the adiabatic PESs is a common phenomenon in molecules [11-13], The singular nonadiabatic coupling (NAC) associated with Cl is the origin of ultrafast non-Born-Oppenheimer transitions. For a number of years, the effects of Cl on IC (or other nonadiabatic processes) have been much discussed and numerous PESs with CIs have been obtained [11, 12] for qualitative discussion. Actual numerical calculations of IC rates are still missing. In this chapter, we shall calculate IC rate with 2-dependent nonadiabatic coupling for the pyrazine molecule as an example to show how to deal with the IC process with the effect of CL Recently, Suzuki et al. have researched the nn state lifetimes for pyrazine in the fs time-resolved pump-probe experiments [13]. The population and coherence dynamics are often involved in such fs photophysical processes. The density matrix method is ideal to describe these types of ultrafast processes and fs time-resolved pump-probe experiments [14-19]. 

Abstract Photoinduced processes in extended molecular systems are often ultrafast and involve strong electron-vibration (vibronic) coupling effects which necessitate a non-perturbative treatment. In the approach presented here, high-dimensional vibrational subspaces are expressed in terms of effective modes, and hierarchical chains of such modes which sequentially resolve the dynamics as a function of time. This permits introducing systematic reduction procedures, both for discretized vibrational distributions and for continuous distributions characterized by spectral densities. In the latter case, a sequence of spectral densities is obtained from a Mori/Rubin-type continued fraction representation. The approach is suitable to describe nonadiabatic processes at conical intersections, excitation energy transfer in molecular aggregates, and related transport phenomena that can be described by generalized spin-boson models. 

Abstract We present a general theoretical approach for the simulation and control of ultrafast processes in complex molecular systems. It is based on the combination of quantum chemical nonadiabatic dynamics on the fly with the Wigner distribution approach for simulation and control of laser-induced ultrafast processes. Specifically, we have developed a procedure for the nonadiabatic dynamics in the framework of time-dependent density functional theory using localized basis sets, which is applicable to a large class of molecules and clusters. This has been combined with our general approach for the simulation of time-resolved photoelectron spectra that represents a powerful tool to identify the mechanism of nonadiabatic processes, which has been illustrated on the example of ultrafast photodynamics of furan. Furthermore, we present our field-induced surface hopping (FISH) method which allows to include laser fields directly into the nonadiabatic... 

As a last example of a molecular system exhibiting nonadiabatic dynamics caused by a conical intersection, we consider a model that recently has been proposed by Seidner and Domcke to describe ultrafast cis-trans isomerization processes in unsaturated hydrocarbons [172]. Photochemical reactions of this type are known to involve large-amplitode motion on coupled potential-energy surfaces [169], thus representing another stringent test for a mixed quantum-classical description that is complementary to Models 1 and II. A number of theoretical investigations, including quantum wave-packet studies [163, 164, 172], time-resolved pump-probe spectra [164, 181], and various mixed... 

Analysis of the Nonadiabatic Dynamics and of the Signals Control of Ultrafast Processes... 

Considerable work has already been carried out using ab initio calculations to predict the photodissociation dynamics of gas-phase metal carbonyls (45). This is a fertile area for computational work, given the extensive experimental results available, which include the use of ultrafast methods to characterize the short time behavior in photoexcited states. There is considerable evidence that surface crossings, especially of a spin-forbidden nature, play a considerable part in the dynamics. Much of the theoretical work so far has focused on reduced-dimensionality models of the PESs, which have been used in quantum mechanical smdies of the nonadiabatic nuclear dynamics, in which spin-forbidden transitions are frequently observed (45). Here, too, the potential benefits to be derived from a proper understanding of the spin-state chemistry are considerable, due to the importance of light-induced processes in organometallic and bioinorganic systems. 

Aqueous ionic solutions represent a paradigm for the study of early branching between ultrafast nonadiabatic and adiabatic electron transfers. The very recent experimental observations of specific counterion effects on electronic dynamics provide direct evidence of complex influences of inhomogeneous ion-ion distributions on ultrafast electron-transfer processes. These microscopic effects are particularly evident in IR electronic traiectories in sodium chloride solution (86, 92). 

The goal of this review is to critically compare — from both a concep-tional and a practical point of view — various MQC strategies to describe non-Born-Oppenheimer dynamics. Owing to personal preferences, we will focus on the modeling of ultrafast bound-state processes following photoexcitation such as internal-conversion and nonadiabatic photoisomerization. To this end, Sec. 2 introduces three model problems Model I represents a three-mode description of the Si — S2 conical intersection in pyrazine. Model II accounts for the ultrafast C B X internal-conversion process in the benzene cation, and Model III represents a three-mode description of ultrafast photoisomerization triggered by a conical intersection. Allowing for exact quantum-mechanical reference calculations, all models have been used as benchmark problems to study approximate descriptions. 

In summary, time-resolved photoelectron imaging spectroscopy with the very high time-resolution of 22 fs using two-colour deep UV pulses and ab initio nonadiabatic dynamics simulations have for the first time revealed the ultrafast deactivation processes from S2 to So state in furan. Joint theoretical and experimental results represent a general approach for investigation of ultrafast photochemical reactions, allowing to identify the fingerprints of the character of electronic states with an unprecedented precision. 

Furthermore, the FISH method is introduced, allowing to include laser fields directly into the nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations and thus to realistically model their influence on ultrafast processes. In particular, this approach can be combined with genetic algorithms allowing to design shaped laser pulses which can drive a variety of processes. 

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