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Non-Born-Oppenheimer quantum dynamics of H-2(+) and HD+ excited by single one-cycle laser pulses linearly polarized along the molecular (z) axis have been studied within a three-dimensional model, including the internuclear distance R and electron coordinates z and rho, by means of the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation on the timescale of about 200 fs. Laser carrier frequencies corresponding to the wavelengths of lambda(l) = 400 and 50 nm have been used and the amplitudes of the pulses have been chosen such that the energies of H-2(+) and HD+ are above the dissociation threshold after the ends of the laser pulses. It is shown that excitation of H-2(+) and HD+ above the dissociation threshold is accompanied by formation of vibrationally "hot" and "cold" ensembles of molecules. Dissociation of vibrationally "hot" molecules does not prevent the appearance of post-laser-pulse electronic oscillations, parallel z oscillations, and transversal rho oscillations. Moreover, dissociation of "hot" molecules does not influence characteristic frequencies of electronic z and rho oscillations. The main difference between the laser-induced quantum dynamics of homonuclear H-2(+) and its heteronuclear isotope HD+ is that fast post-laser-pulse electronic z oscillations in H-2(+) are regularly shaped with the period of tau(shp) approximate to 30 fs corresponding to nuclear oscillations in H-2(+), while electronic z oscillations in HD+ arise as "echo pulses" of its initial excitation and appear with the period of tau(echo) approximate to 80 fs corresponding to nuclear motion in HD+. Accordingly, corresponding power spectra of nuclear motion contain strong low-frequency harmonics at omega(shp) = 2 pi/tau(shp) in H2(+) and omega(echo) = 2 pi/tau(echo) in HD+. Power spectra related to both electronic and nuclear motion have been calculated in the acceleration form. Both higher- and lower-order harmonics are generated at the laser wavelength lambda(l) = 400 nm, while only lower-order harmonics are well pronounced at lambda(l) = 50 nm. It is also shown that a rationalized harmonic order, defined in terms of the frequency of the laser-induced electronic z oscillations, agrees with the concept of inversion symmetry for electronic motion in diatomic molecules.
Hot localised charge carriers on the Si(111)-7×7 surface are modelled by small charged clusters. Such resonances induce non-local desorption, i.e. more than 10 nm away from the injection site, of chlorobenzene in scanning tunnelling microscope experiments. We used such a cluster model to characterise resonance localisation and vibrational activation for positive and negative resonances recently. In this work, we investigate to which extent the model depends on details of the used cluster or quantum chemistry methods and try to identify the smallest possible cluster suitable for a description of the neutral surface and the ion resonances. Furthermore, a detailed analysis for different chemisorption orientations is performed. While some properties, as estimates of the resonance energy or absolute values for atomic changes, show such a dependency, the main findings are very robust with respect to changes in the model and/or the chemisorption geometry.
Quantum chemical approach to atomic manipulation of chlorobenzene on the Si(111)-7 x 7 surface
(2017)
We present a cluster model to describe the localization of hot charge carriers on the Si(111)-7 x 7 surface, which leads to (nonlocal) desorption of chlorobenzene molecules in scanning tunneling microscope (STM) manipulation experiments. The localized charge carriers are modeled by a small cluster. By means of quantum chemical calculations, this cluster model explains many experimental findings from STM manipulation. We show that the negative charge is mainly localized in the surface, while the positive one also resides on the molecule. Both resonances boost desorption: In the negative resonance the adatom is elevated; in the positive one the chemisorption bond between the silicon surface adatom and chlorobenzene is broken. We find normal modes promoting desorption matching experimental low-temperature activation energies for electron-and hole-induced desorption.
Near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) simulations based on the conventional configuration interaction singles (CIS) lead to excitation energies, which are systematically blue shifted. Using a (restricted) open shell core hole reference instead of the Hartree Fock (HF) ground state orbitals improves (Decleva et al., Chem. Phys., 1992, 168, 51) excitation energies and the shape of the spectra significantly. In this work, we systematically vary the underlying SCF approaches, that is, based on HF or density functional theory, to identify best suited reference orbitals using a series of small test molecules. We compare the energies of the K edges and NEXAFS spectra to experimental data. The main improvement compared to conventional CIS, that is, using HF ground state orbitals, is due to the electrostatic influence of the core hole. Different SCF approaches, density functionals, or the use of fractional occupations lead only to comparably small changes. Furthermore, to account for bigger systems, we adapt the core-valence separation for our approach. We demonstrate that the good quality of the spectrum is not influenced by this approximation when used together with the non-separated ground state wave function. Simultaneously, the computational demands are reduced remarkably. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Utilizing suitable precursor molecules, a thermally activated and surface-assisted synthesis results in the formation of defect-free graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), which exhibit electronic properties that are not present in extended graphene. Most importantly, they have a band gap in the order of a few electron volts, depending on the nanoribbon width. In this study, we investigate the electronic structure changes during the formation of GNRs, nitrogen-doped (singly and doubly N-doped) as well as non-N-doped chevron-shaped CGNRs on Au(111). Thus we determine the optical gaps of the precursor molecules, the intermediate nonaromatic polymers, and finally the aromatic GNRs, using high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. As expected, we find no influence of N-doping on the size of the optical gaps. The gap of the precursor molecules is around 4.5 eV. Polymerization leads to a reduction of the gap to a value of 3.2 eV due to elongation and thus enhanced delocalization. The CGNRs exhibit a band gap of 2.8 eV, thus the gap is further reduced in the nanoribbons, since they exhibit an extended delocalized pi-electron system.
We combine the stochastic pulse optimization (SPO) scheme with the time-dependent configuration interaction singles method in order to control the high frequency response of a simple molecular model system to a tailored femtosecond laser pulse. For this purpose, we use H-2 treated in the fixed nuclei approximation. The SPO scheme, as similar genetic algorithms, is especially suited to control highly non-linear processes, which we consider here in the context of high harmonic generation. Here, we will demonstrate that SPO can be used to realize a "non-harmonic" response of H2 to a laser pulse. Specifically, we will show how adding low intensity side frequencies to the dominant carrier frequency of the laser pulse and stochastically optimizing their contribution can create a high-frequency spectral signal of significant intensity, not harmonic to the carrier frequency. At the same time, it is possible to suppress the harmonic signals in the same spectral region, although the carrier frequency is kept dominant during the optimization. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.
We present a novel laser pulse control for the chiroptical switch 1-(2-cis-fluoroethenyl)-2-fluoro-3,5-dibromobenzene mounted on adamantane, where the latter imitates a linker group or part of a solid surface. This molecular device offers three switching states: a true achiral "off"-state and two chiral "on"-states of opposite handedness. Due to the alignment of its chiral axis along the surface normal several defined orientations of the switch have to be considered for an efficient stereocontrol strategy. In addition to these different initial conditions, coupled torsional degrees of freedom around the chiral axis make the quest for highly stereoselective laser pulses a challenge. The necessary flexibility in pulse accomplished by employing the iterative stochastic pulse optimization method we presented recently. Still, the complexity of the system dictates a combined treatment by fast molecular dynamics and computationally intensive quantum dynamics. Although quantum effects are found to be of importance, the pulses optimized within the classical treatment allow us to turn on the chirality of the switch, achieving high enantioselectivity in the quantum treatment for all orientations at the same time.
Motivated by recent atomic manipulation experiments, we report quantum chemical calculations for chemi- and physisorption minima of chlorobenzene on the Si(111)-7x7 surface. A density functional theory cluster approach is applied, using the B3LYP hybrid functional alongside Grimme's empirical dispersion corrections (D3). We were able to identify chemisorption sites of binding energies of 1.6 eV and physisorption energies of 0.6 eV, both in encouraging agreement with the trend of experimental data. The cluster approach opens up the possibility of a first-principles based dynamical description of STM manipulation experiments on this system, the interpretation of which involves both the chemi- and physisorbed states. However, we found that special care has to be taken regarding the choice of clusters, basis sets, and the evaluation of the dispersion corrections.
We present and discuss the results of crystallographic and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic analyses of five tetrachloridocuprate(II) complexes to supply a useful tool for the structural characterisation of the [CuCl4](2-) moiety in the liquid state, for example in ionic liquids, or in solution. Bis(benzyltriethylammonium)-, bis(trimethylphenylammonium)-, bis(ethyltriphenylphosphonium)-, bis(benzyltriphenylphosphonium)-, and bis(tetraphenylarsonium) tetrachloridocuprate(II) were synthesised and characterised by elemental, IR, EPR and X-ray analyses. The results of the crystallographic analyses show distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry of all [CuCl4](2-) anions in the five complexes and prove that all investigated complexes are stabilised by hydrogen bonds of different intensities. Despite the use of sterically demanding ammonium, phosphonium and arsonium cations to obtain the separation of the paramagnetic Cu(II) centres for EPR spectroscopy no hyperfine structure was observed in the EPR spectra but the principal values of the electron Zeeman tensor, g(parallel to) and g(perpendicular to), could be determined. With these EPR data and the crystallographic parameters we were able to carry out a correlation study to anticipate the structural situation of tetrachloridocuprates in different physical states. This correlation is in good agreement with DFT calculations.
High conductivity and a tunability of the band gap make quasi-one-dimensional graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) highly interesting materials for the use in field effect transistors. Especially bottom-up fabricated GNRs possess well-defined edges which is important for the electronic structure and accordingly the band gap. In this study we investigate the formation of a sub-nanometer wide armchair GNR generated on a Au(111) surface. The on-surface synthesis is thermally activated and involves an intermediate non-aromatic polymer in which the molecular precursor forms polyanthrylene chains. Employing angle-resolved two-photon photoemission in combination with density functional theory calculations we find that the polymer exhibits two dispersing states which we attribute to the valence and the conduction band, respectively. While the band gap of the non-aromatic polymer obtained in this way is relatively large, namely 5.25 +/- 0.06 eV, the gap of the corresponding aromatic GNR is strongly reduced which we attribute to the different degree of electron delocalization in the two systems.