Wavepacket described

The initial wavepacket, described in Section III.B is intrinsically complex (in the mathematical sense). Furthermore, the solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation [Eq. (4.23)] also involves an intrinsically complex time evolution operator, exp(—/Ht/ ). It therefore seems reasonable to assume that aU the numerical operations involved with generating and analyzing the time-dependent wavefunction will involve complex arithmetic. It therefore comes as a surprise to realize that this is in fact not the case and that nearly all aspects of the calculation can be performed using entirely real wavefunctions and real arithmetic. The theory of the real wavepacket method described in this section has been developed by S. K. Gray and the author [133]. 

A two-dimensional potential surface V R R2) is shown as a contour plot in Fig. 14. Here, a wavepacket describing a trapped particle is placed in the potential well at values of R > 0. As in the one-dimensional case, the purpose is to induce a transfer into the second potential well by application of an LCT field [129]. In order to do so, we impose a heating condition for the positive values of the expectation value of the (reaction) coordinate (R )t and a cooling condition for (R ), < 0. Although it is possible to exclusively incorporate the dynamics in the reaction coordinate into the construction of the field (as was done in the selective mode dissociation see Section III.C), here we include both... 

Figure 6-4 (a andc) Gaussian wavepackets describing particles found to be atx = 0 with differing degrees of certainty, (b and d) Values of (where k = 2mE/h) for momentum eigenfunctions that combine to express the gaussian wave packets to their left, (a, b) corresponds to relatively certain position and relatively uncertain momentum, whereas (c, d) corresponds to the opposite situation. 

The pioneering use of wavepackets for describing absorption, photodissociation and resonance Raman spectra is due to Heller [12, 13,14,15 and 16]- The application to pulsed excitation, coherent control and nonlinear spectroscopy was initiated by Taimor and Rice ([17] and references therein). 

Figure Al.6.7. Schematic diagram illustrating the different possibilities of interference between a pair of wavepackets, as described in the text. The diagram illustrates the role of phase ((a) and (c)), as well as the role of time delay (b). These cases provide the interpretation for the experimental results shown in figure Al.6.8. Reprinted from [22],...

This section is divided into two sections the first concerned with time-dependent methods for describing the evolution of wavepackets and the second concerned with time-independent methods for solving the time independent Sclirodinger equation. The methods described are designed to be representative of what is in use. 

The methods described here are all designed to detennine the time evolution of wavepackets that have been previously defined. This is only one of several steps for using wavepackets to solve scattering problems. The overall procedure involves the following steps ... 

Coherent states and diverse semiclassical approximations to molecular wavepackets are essentially dependent on the relative phases between the wave components. Due to the need to keep this chapter to a reasonable size, we can mention here only a sample of original works (e.g., [202-205]) and some summaries [206-208]. In these, the reader will come across the Maslov index [209], which we pause to mention here, since it links up in a natural way to the modulus-phase relations described in Section III and with the phase-fiacing method in Section IV. The Maslov index relates to the phase acquired when the semiclassical wave function haverses a zero (or a singularity, if there be one) and it (and, particularly, its sign) is the consequence of the analytic behavior of the wave function in the complex time plane. 

Central to the description of this dynamics is the BO approximation. This separates the nuclear and electionic motion, and allows the system evolution to be described by a function of the nuclei, known as a wavepacket, moving over a PES provided by the (adiabatic) motion of the electrons. 

Information about critical points on the PES is useful in building up a picture of what is important in a particular reaction. In some cases, usually themially activated processes, it may even be enough to describe the mechanism behind a reaction. However, for many real systems dynamical effects will be important, and the MEP may be misleading. This is particularly true in non-adiabatic systems, where quantum mechanical effects play a large role. For example, the spread of energies in an excited wavepacket may mean that the system finds an intersection away from the minimum energy point, and crosses there. It is for this reason that molecular dynamics is also required for a full characterization of the system of interest. 

Finally, Gaussian wavepacket methods are described in which the nuclear wavepacket is described by one or more Gaussian functions. Again the equations of motion to be solved have the fomi of classical trajectories in phase space. Now, however, each trajectory has a quantum character due to its spread in coordinate space. 

Figure 2. Wavepacket dynamics of the H + H H2 + H scattering reaction, shown as snapshots of the density (wave packet amplitude squard) at various times, The coordinates, in au, are described in Figure la, and the wavepacket is initially moving to describe the H atom approaching the H2 molecule. The density has been integrated over the angular coordinate, The PES is plotted for the collinear interaction geometry, 0 180, ...

As shown above in Section UFA, the use of wavepacket dynamics to study non-adiabatic systems is a trivial extension of the methods described for adiabatic systems in Section H E. The equations of motion have the same form, but now there is a wavepacket for each electronic state. The motions of these packets are then coupled by the non-adiabatic terms in the Hamiltonian operator matrix elements. In contrast, the methods in Section II that use trajectories in phase space to represent the time evolution of the nuclear wave function cannot be... 

Both the BO dynamics and Gaussian wavepacket methods described above in Section n separate the nuclear and electronic motion at the outset, and use the concept of potential energy surfaces. In what is generally known as the Ehrenfest dynamics method, the picture is still of semiclassical nuclei and quantum mechanical electrons, but in a fundamentally different approach the electronic wave function is propagated at the same time as the pseudoparticles. These are driven by standard classical equations of motion, with the force provided by an instantaneous potential energy function... 

The picture here is of uncoupled Gaussian functions roaming over the PES, driven by classical mechanics. The coefficients then add the quantum mechanics, building up the nuclear wavepacket from the Gaussian basis set. This makes the treatment of non-adiabatic effects simple, as the coefficients are driven by the Hamiltonian matrices, and these elements couple basis functions on different surfaces, allowing hansfer of population between the states. As a variational principle was used to derive these equations, the coefficients describe the time dependence of the wavepacket as accurately as possible using the given... 

Figure 1.3. Real-time femtosecond spectroscopy of molecules can be described in terms of optical transitions excited by ultrafast laser pulses between potential energy curves which indicate how different energy states of a molecule vary with interatomic distances. The example shown here is for the dissociation of iodine bromide (IBr). An initial pump laser excites a vertical transition from the potential curve of the lowest (ground) electronic state Vg to an excited state Vj. The fragmentation of IBr to form I + Br is described by quantum theory in terms of a wavepacket which either oscillates between the extremes of or crosses over onto the steeply repulsive potential V[ leading to dissociation, as indicated by the two arrows. These motions are monitored in the time domain by simultaneous absorption of two probe-pulse photons which, in this case, ionise the dissociating molecule.

Figure 41. Selective bond breaking of H2O by means of the quadratically chirped pulses with the initial wave packets described in the text. The dynamics of the wavepacket moving on the excited potential energy surface is illustrated by the density, (a) The initail wave packet is the ground vibrational eigen state at the equilibrium position, (b) The initial wave packet has the same shape as that of (a), but shifted to the right, (c) The initail wave packet is at the equilibrium position but with a directed momentum toward x direction. Taken from Ref. [37]. (See color insert.)...

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