Wavepacket transfer

Fig. 5.7 Photoelectron energy spectrum as the wavepacket transfers from the ionic to the covalent curve (second crossing). (Reprinted with permission from Y. Arasaki et al., J. Chem. Phys. 119, 7913 (2003)).

Figure Al.6.20. (Left) Level scheme and nomenclature used in (a) single time-delay CARS, (b) Two-time delay CARS ((TD) CARS). The wavepacket is excited by cOp, then transferred back to the ground state by with Raman shift oij. Its evolution is then monitored by tOp (after [44])- (Right) Relevant potential energy surfaces for the iodine molecule. The creation of the wavepacket in the excited state is done by oip. The transfer to the final state is shown by the dashed arrows according to the state one wants to populate (after [44]).

So far we have exclusively discussed time-resolved absorption spectroscopy with visible femtosecond pulses. It has become recently feasible to perfomi time-resolved spectroscopy with femtosecond IR pulses. Flochstrasser and co-workers [M, 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. 156 and 157] have worked out methods to employ IR pulses to monitor chemical reactions following electronic excitation by visible pump pulses these methods were applied in work on the light-initiated charge-transfer reactions that occur in the photosynthetic reaction centre [156. 157] and on the excited-state isomerization of tlie retinal pigment in bacteriorhodopsin [155]. Walker and co-workers [158] have recently used femtosecond IR spectroscopy to study vibrational dynamics associated with intramolecular charge transfer these studies are complementary to those perfomied by Barbara and co-workers [159. 160], in which ground-state RISRS wavepackets were monitored using a dynamic-absorption technique with visible pulses. 

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. 

Figure 1.6. Quantum theory of IBr-Ar dissociation, showing a snapshot of the wavepacket states at 840 fs after excitation of the I-Br mode by a 100 fs laser pulse. The wavepacket maximum reveals predominant fragmentation of the IBr molecule along the r coordinate at short IBr-Ar distances [R coordinate), whilst a tail of amplitude stretches to longer R coordinates, indicating transfer of energy from the I-Br vibration to the IBr-Ar dimension, which propels the argon atom away from the intact IBr molecule.

Takeuchi T, Tahara T (2005) Coherent nuclear wavepacket motions in ultrafast excited-state intramolecular proton transfer sub-30-fs resolved pump-probe absorption spectroscopy of 10-hydroxybenzo[h]quinoline in solution. J Phys Chem A 109 10199-10207... 

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 transfer 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... 

Symmetry breaking wavepacket motion and absence of deuterium isotope effect in ultrafast excited state proton transfer... 

The double proton transfer of [2,2 -Bipyridyl]-3,3 -diol is investigated by UV-visible pump-probe spectroscopy with 30 fs time resolution. We find characteristic wavepacket motions for both the concerted double proton transfer and the sequential proton transfer that occur in parallel. The coherent excitation of an optically inactive, antisymmetric bending vibration is observed demonstrating that the reactive process itself and not only the optical excitation drives the vibrational motions. We show by the absence of a deuterium isotope effect that the ESIPT dynamics is entirely determined by the skeletal modes and that it should not be described by tunneling of the proton. 

Unlike the case of simple diatomic molecules, the reaction coordinate in polyatomic molecules does not simply correspond to the change of a particular chemical bond. Therefore, it is not yet clear for polyatomic molecules how the observed wavepacket motion is related to the reaction coordinate. Study of such a coherent vibration in ultrafast reacting system is expected to give us a clue to reveal its significance in chemical reactions. In this study, we employed two-color pump-probe spectroscopy with ultrashort pulses in the 10-fs regime, and investigated the coherent nuclear motion of solution-phase molecules that undergo photodissociation and intramolecular proton transfer in the excited state. 

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