TY - JOUR A1 - Melani, Giacomo A1 - Nagata, Yuki A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Vibrational energy relaxation of interfacial OH on a water-covered alpha-Al2O3(0001) surface BT - a non-equilibrium ab initio molecular dynamics study JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European chemical societies N2 - Vibrational relaxation of adsorbates is a sensitive tool to probe energy transfer at gas/solid and liquid/solid interfaces. The most direct way to study relaxation dynamics uses time-resolved spectroscopy. Here we report on a non-equilibrium ab initio molecular dynamics (NE-AIMD) methodology to model vibrational relaxation of OH vibrations on a hydroxylated, water-covered alpha-Al2O3(0001) surface. In our NE-AIMD approach, after exciting selected O-H bonds their coupling to surface phonons and to the water adlayer is analyzed in detail, by following both the energy flow in time, as well as the time-evolution of Vibrational Density of States (VDOS) curves. The latter are obtained from Time-dependent Correlation Functions (TCFs) and serve as prototypical, generic representatives of time-resolved vibrational spectra. As most important results, (i) we find a few-picosecond lifetime of the excited modes and (ii) identify both hydrogen-bonded aluminols and water molecules in the adsorbed water layer as main dissipative channels, while the direct coupling to Al2O3 surface phonons is of minor importance on the timescales of interest. Our NE-AIMD/TCF methodology is powerful for complex adsorbate systems, in principle even reacting ones, and opens a way towards time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp03777j SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 23 IS - 13 SP - 7714 EP - 7723 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bouakline, Foudhil A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Seemingly asymmetric atom-localized electronic densities following laser-dissociation of homonuclear diatomics JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry N2 - Recent experiments on laser-dissociation of aligned homonuclear diatomic molecules show an asymmetric forward-backward (spatial) electron-localization along the laser polarization axis. Most theoretical models attribute this asymmetry to interference effects between gerade and ungerade vibronic states. Presumably due to alignment, these models neglect molecular rotations and hence infer an asymmetric (post-dissociation) charge distribution over the two identical nuclei. In this paper, we question the equivalence that is made between spatial electron-localization, observed in experiments, and atomic electron-localization, alluded by these theoretical models. We show that (seeming) agreement between these models and experiments is due to an unfortunate omission of nuclear permutation symmetry, i.e., quantum statistics. Enforcement of the latter requires mandatory inclusion of the molecular rotational degree of freedom, even for perfectly aligned molecules. Unlike previous interpretations, we ascribe spatial electron-localization to the laser creation of a rovibronic wavepacket that involves field-free molecular eigenstates with opposite space-inversion symmetry i.e., even and odd parity. Space-inversion symmetry breaking would then lead to an asymmetric distribution of the (space-fixed) electronic density over the forward and backward hemisphere. However, owing to the simultaneous coexistence of two indistinguishable molecular orientational isomers, our analytical and computational results show that the post-dissociation electronic density along a specified space-fixed axis is equally shared between the two identical nuclei-a result that is in perfect accordance with the principle of the indistinguishability of identical particles. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049710 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 154 IS - 23 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kogikoski Junior, Sergio A1 - Tapio, Kosti A1 - Edler von Zander, Robert A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Bald, Ilko T1 - Raman enhancement of nanoparticle dimers self-assembled using DNA origami nanotriangles JF - Molecules : a journal of synthetic chemistry and natural product chemistry / Molecular Diversity Preservation International N2 - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is a powerful approach to detect molecules at very low concentrations, even up to the single-molecule level. One important aspect of the materials used in such a technique is how much the signal is intensified, quantified by the enhancement factor (EF). Herein we obtained the EFs for gold nanoparticle dimers of 60 and 80 nm diameter, respectively, self-assembled using DNA origami nanotriangles. Cy5 and TAMRA were used as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probes, which enable the observation of individual nanoparticles and dimers. EF distributions are determined at four distinct wavelengths based on the measurements of around 1000 individual dimer structures. The obtained results show that the EFs for the dimeric assemblies follow a log-normal distribution and are in the range of 10(6) at 633 nm and that the contribution of the molecular resonance effect to the EF is around 2, also showing that the plasmonic resonance is the main source of the observed signal. To support our studies, FDTD simulations of the nanoparticle's electromagnetic field enhancement has been carried out, as well as calculations of the resonance Raman spectra of the dyes using DFT. We observe a very close agreement between the experimental EF distribution and the simulated values. KW - surface-enhanced Raman scattering KW - DNA origami KW - resonance Raman KW - scattering KW - nanoparticle dimers Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26061684 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 26 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Witzorky, Christoph A1 - Paramonov, Guennaddi A1 - Bouakline, Foudhil A1 - Jaquet, Ralph A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Klamroth, Tillmann T1 - Gaussian-type orbital calculations for high harmonic generation in vibrating molecules BT - Benchmarks for H-2(+) JF - Journal of chemical theory and computation N2 - The response of the hydrogen molecular ion, H-2(+), to few-cycle laser pulses of different intensities is simulated. To treat the coupled electron-nuclear motion, we use adiabatic potentials computed with Gaussian-type basis sets together with a heuristic ionization model for the electron and a grid representation for the nuclei. Using this mixed-basis approach, the time-dependent Schrodinger equation is solved, either within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation or with nonadiabatic couplings included. The dipole response spectra are compared to all-grid-based solutions for the three-body problem, which we take as a reference to benchmark the Gaussian-type basis set approaches. Also, calculations employing the fixed-nuclei approximation are performed, to quantify effects due to nuclear motion. For low intensities and small ionization probabilities, we get excellent agreement of the dynamics using Gaussian-type basis sets with the all-grid solutions. Our investigations suggest that high harmonic generation (HHG) and high-frequency response, in general, can be reliably modeled using Gaussian-type basis sets for the electrons for not too high harmonics. Further, nuclear motion destroys electronic coherences in the response spectra even on the time scale of about 30 fs and affects HHG intensities, which reflect the electron dynamics occurring on the attosecond time scale. For the present system, non-Born-Oppenheimer effects are small. The Gaussian-based, nonadiabatically coupled, time-dependent multisurface approach to treat quantum electron-nuclear motion beyond the non-Born-Oppenheimer approximation can be easily extended to approximate wavefunction methods, such as time-dependent configuration interaction singles (TD-CIS), for systems where no benchmarks are available. KW - Basis sets KW - Chemical calculations KW - Ionization KW - Lasers KW - Quantum mechanics Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00837 SN - 1549-9618 SN - 1549-9626 VL - 17 IS - 12 SP - 7353 EP - 7365 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Eric W. A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - A thermofield-based multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree approach to non-adiabatic quantum dynamics at finite temperature JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry N2 - We introduce a thermofield-based formulation of the multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method to study finite temperature effects on non-adiabatic quantum dynamics from a non-stochastic, wave function perspective. Our approach is based on the formal equivalence of bosonic many-body theory at zero temperature with a doubled number of degrees of freedom and the thermal quasi-particle representation of bosonic thermofield dynamics (TFD). This equivalence allows for a transfer of bosonic many-body MCTDH as introduced by Wang and Thoss to the finite temperature framework of thermal quasi-particle TFD. As an application, we study temperature effects on the ultrafast internal conversion dynamics in pyrazine. We show that finite temperature effects can be efficiently accounted for in the construction of multilayer expansions of thermofield states in the framework presented herein. Furthermore, we find our results to agree well with existing studies on the pyrazine model based on the pMCTDH method. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0064013 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 155 IS - 13 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bedurke, Florian A1 - Klamroth, Tillmann A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Many-electron dynamics in laser-driven molecules BT - wavefunction theory vs. density functional theory JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - With recent experimental advances in laser-driven electron dynamics in polyatomic molecules, the need arises for their reliable theoretical modelling. Among efficient, yet fairly accurate methods for many-electron dynamics are Time-Dependent Configuration Interaction Singles (TD-CIS) (a Wave Function Theory (WFT) method), and Real-Time Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (RT-TD-DFT), respectively. Here we compare TD-CIS combined with extended Atomic Orbital (AO) bases, TD-CIS/AO, with RT-TD-DFT in a grid representation of the Kohn-Sham orbitals, RT-TD-DFT/Grid. Possible ionization losses are treated by complex absorbing potentials in energy space (for TD-CIS/AO) or real space (for RT-TD-DFT), respectively. The comparison is made for two test cases: (i) state-to-state transitions using resonant lasers (pi-pulses), i.e., bound electron motion, and (ii) large-amplitude electron motion leading to High Harmonic Generation (HHG). Test systems are a H-2 molecule and cis- and trans-1,2-dichlorethene, C2H2Cl2, (DCE). From time-dependent electronic energies, dipole moments and from HHG spectra, the following observations are made: first, for bound state-to-state transitions enforced by pi-pulses, TD-CIS nicely accounts for the expected population inversion in contrast to RT-TD-DFT, in agreement with earlier findings. Secondly, when using laser pulses under non-resonant conditions, dipole moments and lower harmonics in HHG spectra are obtained by TD-CIS/AO which are in good agreement with those obtained with RT-TD-DFT/Grid. Deviations become larger for higher harmonics and at low laser intensities, i.e., for low-intensity HHG signals. We also carefully test effects of basis sets for TD-CIS/AO and grid size for RT-TD-DFT/Grid, different exchange-correlation functionals in RT-TD-DFT, and absorbing boundaries. Finally, for the present examples, TD-CIS/AO is observed to be at least an order of magnitude more computationally efficient than RT-TD-DFT/Grid. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp01100f SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 23 IS - 24 SP - 13544 EP - 13560 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Titov, Evgenii A1 - Sharma, Anjali A1 - Lomadze, Nino A1 - Saalfrank, Peter A1 - Santer, Svetlana A1 - Bekir, Marek T1 - Photoisomerization of an azobenzene-containing surfactant within a micelle JF - ChemPhotoChem N2 - Photosensitive azobenzene-containing surfactants have attracted great attention in past years because they offer a means to control soft-matter transformations with light. At concentrations higher than the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the surfactant molecules aggregate and form micelles, which leads to a slowdown of the photoinduced trans -> cis azobenzene isomerization. Here, we combine nonadiabatic dynamics simulations for the surfactant molecules embedded in the micelles with absorption spectroscopy measurements of micellar solutions to uncover the reasons responsible for the reaction slowdown. Our simulations reveal a decrease of isomerization quantum yields for molecules inside the micelles. We also observe a reduction of extinction coefficients upon micellization. These findings explain the deceleration of the trans -> cis switching in micelles of the azobenzene-containing surfactants. KW - azobenzene KW - micelles KW - photoswitches KW - rate constants KW - surfactants KW - surface hopping Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cptc.202100103 SN - 2367-0932 VL - 5 IS - 10 SP - 926 EP - 932 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sinha, Shreya A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - "Inverted" CO molecules on NaCl(100) BT - a quantum mechanical study JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - Somewhat surprisingly, inverted ("O-down") CO adsorbates on NaCl(100) were recently observed experimentally after infrared vibrational excitation (Lau et al., Science, 2020, 367, 175-178). Here we characterize these species using periodic density functional theory and a quantum mechanical description of vibrations. We determine stationary points and minimum energy paths for CO inversion, for low (1/8 and 1/4 monolayers (ML)) and high (1 ML) coverages. Transition state theory is applied to estimate thermal rates for "C-down" to "O-down" isomerization and the reverse process. For the 1/4 ML p(1 x 1) structure, two-dimensional and three-dimensional potential energy surfaces and corresponding anharmonic vibrational eigenstates obtained from the time-independent nuclear Schrodinger equation are presented. We find (i) rather coverage-independent CO inversion energies (of about 0.08 eV or 8 kJ mol(-1) per CO) and corresponding classical activation energies for "C-down" to "O-down" isomerization (of about 0.15 eV or 14 kJ mol(-1) per CO); (ii) thermal isomerization rates at 22 K which are vanishingly small for the "C-down" to "O-down" isomerization but non-negligible for the back reaction; (iii) several "accidentally degenerate" pairs of eigenstates well below the barrier, each pair describing "C-down" to "O-down" localized states. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp05198e SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 23 IS - 13 SP - 7860 EP - 7874 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Eric W. A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Ground state properties and infrared spectra of anharmonic vibrational polaritons of small molecules in cavities JF - The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr N2 - Recent experiments and theory suggest that ground state properties and reactivity of molecules can be modified when placed inside a nanoscale cavity, giving rise to strong coupling between vibrational modes and the quantized cavity field. This is commonly thought to be caused either by a cavity-distorted Born-Oppenheimer ground state potential or by the formation of light-matter hybrid states, vibrational polaritons. Here, we systematically study the effect of a cavity on ground state properties and infrared spectra of single molecules, considering vibration-cavity coupling strengths from zero up to the vibrational ultrastrong coupling regime. Using single-mode models for Li-H and O-H stretch modes and for the NH3 inversion mode, respectively, a single cavity mode in resonance with vibrational transitions is coupled to position-dependent molecular dipole functions. We address the influence of the cavity mode on polariton ground state energies, equilibrium bond lengths, dissociation energies, activation energies for isomerization, and on vibro-polaritonic infrared spectra. In agreement with earlier work, we observe all mentioned properties being strongly affected by the cavity, but only if the dipole self-energy contribution in the interaction Hamiltonian is neglected. When this term is included, these properties do not depend significantly on the coupling anymore. Vibro-polaritonic infrared spectra, in contrast, are always affected by the cavity mode due to the formation of excited vibrational polaritons. It is argued that the quantized nature of vibrational polaritons is key to not only interpreting molecular spectra in cavities but also understanding the experimentally observed modification of molecular reactivity in cavities. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0040853 SN - 0021-9606 SN - 1089-7690 VL - 154 IS - 10 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER -