Surfaces hopping

This is no longer the case when (iii) motion along the reaction patir occurs on a time scale comparable to other relaxation times of the solute or the solvent, i.e. the system is partially non-relaxed. In this situation dynamic effects have to be taken into account explicitly, such as solvent-assisted intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) in the solute, solvent-induced electronic surface hopping, dephasing, solute-solvent energy transfer, dynamic caging, rotational relaxation, or solvent dielectric and momentum relaxation. 

The simplest approach to simulating non-adiabatic dynamics is by surface hopping [175. 176]. In its simplest fomi, the approach is as follows. One carries out classical simulations of the nuclear motion on a specific adiabatic electronic state (ground or excited) and at any given instant checks whether the diabatic potential associated with that electronic state is mtersectmg the diabatic potential on another electronic state. If it is, then a decision is made as to whedier a jump to the other adiabatic electronic state should be perfomied. 

Tully J C and Preston R K 1971 Trajectory surface hopping approach to nonadiabatic molecular collisions the reaction of H" with D2 J. Chem. Phys. 55 562... 

By using this approach, it is possible to calculate vibrational state-selected cross-sections from minimal END trajectories obtained with a classical description of the nuclei. We have studied vibrationally excited H2(v) molecules produced in collisions with 30-eV protons [42,43]. The relevant experiments were performed by Toennies et al. [46] with comparisons to theoretical studies using the trajectory surface hopping model [11,47] fTSHM). This system has also stimulated a quantum mechanical study [48] using diatomics-in-molecule (DIM) surfaces [49] and invoicing the infinite-onler sudden approximation (lOSA). 

To add non-adiabatic effects to semiclassical methods, it is necessary to allow the trajectories to sample the different surfaces in a way that simulates the population transfer between electronic states. This sampling is most commonly done by using surface hopping techniques or Ehrenfest dynamics. Recent reviews of these methods are found in [30-32]. Gaussian wavepacket methods have also been extended to include non-adiabatic effects [33,34]. Of particular interest here is the spawning method of Martinez, Ben-Nun, and Levine [35,36], which has been used already in a number of direct dynamics studies. 

The standard semiclassical methods are surface hopping and Ehrenfest dynamics (also known as the classical path (CP) method [197]), and they will be outlined below. More details and comparisons can be found in [30-32]. The multiple spawning method, based on Gaussian wavepacket propagation, is also outlined below. See [1] for further infomiation on both quantum and semiclassical non-adiabatic dynamics methods. 

The simplest way to add a non-adiabatic correction to the classical BO dynamics method outlined above in Section n.B is to use what is known as surface hopping. First introduced on an intuitive basis by Bjerre and Nikitin [200] and Tully and Preston [201], a number of variations have been developed [202-205], and are reviewed in [28,206]. Reference [204] also includes technical details of practical algorithms. These methods all use standard classical trajectories that use the hopping procedure to sample the different states, and so add non-adiabatic effects. A different scheme was introduced by Miller and George [207] which, although based on the same ideas, uses complex coordinates and momenta. 

Other studies have also been made on the dynamics around a conical intersection in a model 2D system, both for dissociahve [225] and bound-state [226] problems. Comparison between surface hopping and exact calculations show reasonable agreement when the coupling between the surfaces is weak, but larger errors are found in the shong coupling limit. 

A final study that must be mentioned is a study by Haitmann et al. [249] on the ultrafast spechoscopy of the Na3p2 cluster. They derived an expression for the calculation of a pump-probe signal using a Wigner-type density mahix approach, which requires a time-dependent ensemble to be calculated after the initial excitation. This ensemble was obtained using fewest switches surface hopping, with trajectories inibally sampled from the thermalized vibronic Wigner function vertically excited onto the upper surface. 

Quantum chemical methods, exemplified by CASSCF and other MCSCF methods, have now evolved to an extent where it is possible to routinely treat accurately the excited electronic states of molecules containing a number of atoms. Mixed nuclear dynamics, such as swarm of trajectory based surface hopping or Ehrenfest dynamics, or the Gaussian wavepacket based multiple spawning method, use an approximate representation of the nuclear wavepacket based on classical trajectories. They are thus able to use the infoiination from quantum chemistry calculations required for the propagation of the nuclei in the form of forces. These methods seem able to reproduce, at least qualitatively, the dynamics of non-adiabatic systems. Test calculations have now been run using duect dynamics, and these show that even a small number of trajectories is able to produce useful mechanistic infomiation about the photochemistry of a system. In some cases it is even possible to extract some quantitative information. 

It seems that surface hopping (also called Molecular Dynamics with Quantum Transitions, MDQT) is a rather heavy tool to simulate proton dynamics. A recent and promising development is path integral centroid dynamics [123] that provides approximate dynamics of the centroid of the wavefunctions. Several improvements and applications have been published [123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128). 

Relation to Landau-Zener Surface Hopping Rates... 

The determination of the laser-generated populations rij t) is infinitely more delicate. Computer simulations can certainly be applied to study population relaxation times of different electronic states. However, such simulations are no longer completely classical. Semiclassical simulations have been invented for that purpose, and the methods such as surface hopping were proposed. Unfortunately, they have not yet been employed in the present context. Laser spectroscopic data are used instead the decay of the excited state populations is written n (t) = exp(—t/r ), where Xj is the experimentally determined population relaxation time. The laws of chemical kinetics may also be used when necessary. Proceeding in this way, the rapidly varying component of AS q, t) can be determined. 

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