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We investigate the effect of intermode coupling and anharmonicity on the excitation and relaxation dynamics of CO on Cu(100). The nonadiabatic coupling of the adsorbate to the surface is treated perturbatively using a position-dependent state-resolved transition rate model. Using the potential energy surface of Marquardt et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 132, 074108 (2010)], which provides an accurate description of intermode interactions, we propose a four-dimensional model that represents simultaneously the diffusion and the desorption of the adsorbate. The system is driven by both rational and optimized infrared laser pulses to favor either selective mode and state excitations or lateral displacement along the diffusion coordinate. The dissipative dynamics is simulated using the reduced density matrix in its Lindblad form. We show that coupling between the degrees of freedom, mediated by the creation and annihilation of electron-hole pairs in the metal substrate, significantly affects the system excitation and relaxation dynamics. In particular, the angular degrees of freedom appear to play an important role in the energy redistribution among the molecule-surface vibrations. We also show that coherent excitation using simple IR pulses can achieve population transfer to a specific target to some extent but does not allow enforcement of the directionality to the diffusion motion.
Action spectroscopy has emerged as an analytical tool to probe excited states in the gas phase. Although comparison of gas-phase absorption properties with quantum-chemical calculations is, in principle, straightforward, popular methods often fail to describe many molecules of interest-such as xanthene analogues. We, therefore, face their nano-and picosecond laser-induced photofragmentation with excited-state computations by using the CC2 method and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). Whereas the extracted absorption maxima agree with CC2 predictions, the TDDFT excitation energies are blueshifted. Lowering the amount of Hartree-Fock exchange in the DFT functional can reduce this shift but at the cost of changing the nature of the excited state. Additional bandwidth observed in the photofragmentation spectra is rationalized in terms of multiphoton processes. Observed fragmentation from higher-lying excited states conforms to intense excited-to-excited state transitions calculated with CC2. The CC2 method is thus suitable for the comparison with photofragmentation in xanthene analogues.
Molecular photoswitches such as azobenzenes, which undergo photochemical trans <-> cis isomerizations, are often mounted for possible applications on a surface and/or surrounded by other switches, for example, in self-assembled monolayers. This may suppress the isomerization cross section due to possible steric reasons, or, as recently speculated, by exciton coupling to. neighboring switches, leading to ultrafast electronic quenching (Gahl et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 1831). The presence of exciton coupling has been anticipated from a blue shift of the optical absorption band, compared to molecules in solution. From the theory side the need arises to properly analyze and quantify the change of absorption spectra of interacting and adsorbed switches. In particular, suitable methods should be identified, and effects of intermolecule and molecule surface interactions on spectra should be disentangled. In this paper by means of time-dependent Hartree-Fock. (TD-HF), various flavors of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT), and the correlated wave function based, coupled cluster (CC2) method we investigated the 4-nitroazobenzene molecule as an:example: The low-lying singlet excited states in the isolated trans monomer and dieter as well as their composites with a silicon pentamantane nanocluster, which serves also as a crude model for a silicon surface, were determined. As most important results we found that (i) HF, CC2, range-separated density functionals, or global hybrids with large amount of exact exchange are able to describe exciton (Davydov) splitting properly, while hybrids with small amount of exact exchange fail producing spurious charge transfer. (ii) The exciton splitting in a free dimer would lead to a blue shift of the absorption signal; however, this effect is almost nullified or even overcompensated by the shift arising from van der Waals interactions between the two molecules. (iii) Adsorption on the Si "surface" leads to a further, strong red shift for the present system. (iv) At a next-nearest neighbor distance (of similar to 3.6 angstrom), the exciton splitting is similar to 0.3 eV, with or without "surface", suggesting a rapid quenching of the molecular pi ->pi* excitation. At larger distances, exciton splitting decreases rapidly.
alpha-Al2O3 surfaces are common in both engineered applications and the environment. Much prior work indicates that their properties, e.g., reactivity, polarity, and charge, change dramatically on interaction with water. Perhaps the simplest question that can be asked of alpha-Al2O3/water interaction is how a single water molecule interacts with the most stable alpha-Al2O3 surface: the alpha-Al2O3(0001). Over the last 15 years, a series of theoretical studies have found that water dissociatively adsorbs on alpha-Al2O3(0001) through two channels. However, to our knowledge no experimental evidence of these dissociation pathways has appeared. By combining sample preparation via supersonic molecular beam dosing, sample characterization via coherent, surface specific vibrational spectroscopy and electronic structure theory, we report the first experimental observation of reaction products of each, theoretically predicted, dissociation channel. These results thus overcome a 15 year old experiment/theory disconnect and make possible a variety of intriguing experiments that promise to provide significant new insights into water/Al2O3 and water/oxide interaction more generally.
In recent simulations of femtosecond laser induced desorption of molecular oxygen from the Ag(110) surface, it has been shown that depending on the properties (depth and electronic environment) of the well in which 02 is adsorbed, the desorption can be either induced dominantly by hot electrons or via excitations of phonons. In this work we explore whether the ratios between the desorption yields from different adsorption wells can be tuned by changing initial surface temperature and laser pulse properties. We show that the initial surface temperature is an important parameter, and that by using low initial surface temperatures the electronically mediated process can be favored. In contrast, laser properties seem to have only a modest influence on the results. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
In blue-light photoreceptors using flavin (BLUF), the signaling state is formed already within several 100 ps after illumination, with only small changes of the absorption spectrum. The accompanying structural evolution can, in principle, be monitored by femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS). The method is used here to characterize the excited-state properties of riboflavin and flavin adenine dinucleotide in polar solvents. Raman modes are observed in the range 90-1800 cm(-1) for the electronic ground state S-0 and upon excitation to the S-1 state, and modes >1000 cm(-1) of both states are assigned with the help of quantum-chemical calculations. Line shapes are shown to depend sensitively on resonance conditions. They are affected by wavepacket motion in any of the participating electronic states, resulting in complex amplitude modulation of the stimulated Raman spectra. Wavepackets in S-1 can be marked, and thus isolated, by stimulated-emission pumping with the picosecond Raman pulses. Excited-state absorption spectra are obtained from a quantitative comparison of broadband transient fluorescence and absorption. In this way, the resonance conditions for FSRS are determined. Early differences of the emission spectrum depend on excess vibrational energy, and solvation is seen as dynamic Stokes shift of the emission band. The ne state is evidenced only through changes of emission oscillator strength during solvation. S-1 quenching by adenine is seen with all methods in terms of dynamics, not by spectral intermediates.
The femtosecond-laser-induced, substrate-mediated associative desorption of molecular hydrogen and deuterium from a Ru(0001) surface in the so-called DIMET limit is studied theoretically. Two widely used models, a "quantum nonadiabatic" approach and a "classical adiabatic" one are employed and compared to each other. The quantum model is realized by the Monte Carlo wave packet (MCWP) method in the framework of open-system density matrix theory: The classical approach is realized with the help of (frictional) Langevin dynamics with stochastic forces. For both models the same ground-state potential energy surface is used and the same two-temperature model adopted to describe the hot- electron-driven desorption dynamics. Apart from these common features both models are different. Still, both account well for the main experimental findings (Wagner et al. Phys. Rev. B 2005, 72, 205404). In particular, an isotope effect in desorption probabilities, the energy content of the desorbing molecules, and the scaling of these observables with laser fluence are reproduced and explained. The similarity of the results obtained with both models is traced back to the fact that, in the present case, the photodynamics takes place dominantly in the ground electronic state because the electronically excited state is rapidly quenched. The short lifetime of the excited state has also the effect that photoreaction cross sections are typically very small. An IR+vis hybrid scheme, by which the adsorbate is vibrationally excited by IR photons prior to the heating of metal electrons with the vis pulse, is shown to successfully promote the reaction even for strongly coupled adsorbate-surface systems.
A Langevin model accounting for all six molecular degrees of freedom is applied to femtosecond-laser induced, hot-electron driven dynamics of Ru(0001)(2 x 2): CO. In our molecular dynamics with electronic friction approach, a recently developed potential energy surface based on gradient-corrected density functional theory accounting for van der Waals interactions is adopted. Electronic friction due to the coupling of molecular degrees of freedom to electron-hole pairs in the metal are included via a local density friction approximation, and surface phonons by a generalized Langevin oscillator model. The action of ultrashort laser pulses enters through a substrate-mediated, hot-electron mechanism via a time-dependent electronic temperature (derived from a two-temperature model), causing random forces acting on the molecule. The model is applied to laser induced lateral diffusion of CO on the surface, "hot adsorbate" formation, and laser induced desorption. Reaction probabilities are strongly enhanced compared to purely thermal processes, both for diffusion and desorption. Reaction yields depend in a characteristic (nonlinear) fashion on the applied laser fluence, as well as branching ratios for various reaction channels. Computed two-pulse correlation traces for desorption and other indicators suggest that aside from electron-hole pairs, phonons play a non-negligible role for laser induced dynamics in this system, acting on a surprisingly short time scale. Our simulations on precomputed potentials allow for good statistics and the treatment of long-time dynamics (300 ps), giving insight into this system which hitherto has not been reached. We find generally good agreement with experimental data where available and make predictions in addition. A recently proposed laser induced population of physisorbed precursor states could not be observed with the present low-coverage model.
We simulate the femtosecond-laser-induced desorption dynamics of a diatomic molecule from a metal surface by including the effect of the electron and phonon excitations created by the laser pulse. Following previous models, the laser-induced surface excitation is treated through the two temperature model, while the multidimensional dynamics of the molecule is described by a classical Langevin equation, in which the friction and random forces account for the action of the heated electrons. In this work we propose the additional use of the generalized Langevin oscillator model to also include the effect of the energy exchange between the molecule and the heated surface lattice in the desorption dynamics. The model is applied to study the laser-induced desorption of O-2 from the Ag(110) surface, making use of a six-dimensional potential energy surface calculated within density functional theory. Our results reveal the importance of the phonon mediated process and show that, depending on the value of the electronic density in the surroundings of the molecule adsorption site, its inclusion can significantly enhance or reduce the desorption probabilities.
Fluorination of the hydroxylated alpha-Al2O3 (0001) surface is studied using periodic density functional theory calculations. On the basis of a hypothetical reaction substituting surface hydroxyl groups with fluorine atoms, we find surface fluorination to be strongly exergonic but kinetically hindered. Fluorinated surface areas turn out to be rather hydrophobic as compared to hydroxylated areas, suggesting fluorination as a potential route for tuning oxide surface properties such as hydrophilicity.
Following excited-state chemical shifts in molecular ultrafast x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(2022)
Imaging the charge flow in photoexcited molecules would provide key information on photophysical and photochemical processes. Here the authors demonstrate tracking in real time after photoexcitation the change in charge density at a specific site of 2-thiouracil using time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The conversion of photon energy into other energetic forms in molecules is accompanied by charge moving on ultrafast timescales. We directly observe the charge motion at a specific site in an electronically excited molecule using time-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-XPS). We extend the concept of static chemical shift from conventional XPS by the excited-state chemical shift (ESCS), which is connected to the charge in the framework of a potential model. This allows us to invert TR-XPS spectra to the dynamic charge at a specific atom. We demonstrate the power of TR-XPS by using sulphur 2p-core-electron-emission probing to study the UV-excited dynamics of 2-thiouracil. The method allows us to discover that a major part of the population relaxes to the molecular ground state within 220-250 fs. In addition, a 250-fs oscillation, visible in the kinetic energy of the TR-XPS, reveals a coherent exchange of population among electronic states.
The results of a quantum-mechanical study of vibrational relaxation of hydrogen adsorbed on a Si(100) surface with the multi-configurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method are presented. A two-dimensional subsystem is coupled non-linearly to a bath of harmonic oscillators (phonons of the Si bulk), and the relaxation of subsystem vibrations proceeds primarily via a two-phonon process. Characteristic times of the system evolution agree well with our previous perturbation theory study. The vibrational population decay is non-exponential, exhibiting pronounced recurrences due to finite bath size. The dependence of the lifetimes of the vibrational levels on the bath size and on the coupling details is investigated.
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.
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.
Whereas the reversible reduction of azobenzenes has been known for decades, their oxidation is destructive and as a result has been notoriously overlooked. Here, we show that a chain reaction leading to quantitative Z -> E isomerization can be initiated before reaching the destructive anodic peak potential. This hole-catalyzed pathway is accessible to all azobenzenes, without exception, and offers tremendous advantages over the recently reported reductive, radical-anionic pathway because it allows for convenient chemical initiation without the need for electrochemical setups and in the presence of air. In addition, catalytic amounts of metal-free sensitizers, such as methylene blue, can be used as excited-state electron acceptors, enabling a shift of the excitation wavelength to the far red of the azobenzene absorption (up to 660 nm) and providing quantum yields exceeding unity (up to 200%). Our approach will boost the efficiency and sensitivity of optically dense liquid-crystalline and solid photo-switchable materials.
In this paper we report dynamical simulations of laser-driven, coupled nuclear-electron dynamics for a molecule- surface system. Specifically, the laser desorption of a small molecule (NO) from a metal slab (Pt) in the so-called DIET limit (Desorption Induced by Electronic Transitions), is studied. The excitation of the metal electrons by a laser pulse followed by the formation of a negative ion resonance, its subsequent decay, and the simultaneous desorption of the molecule are all treated within a single quantum mechanical model. This model is based on an earlier theory of Harris and others [S. M. Harris, S. Holloway, and G. R. Darling, J. Chem. Phys. 102, 8235 (1995)], according to which a nuclear degree of freedom is coupled to an electronic one, both propagated on a single non-Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface. The goals of the present contribution are (i) to make a conceptual connection of this model to the frequently adopted nonadiabatic "multi-state" models of photodesorption, (ii) to understand details of the desorption mechanism, (iii) to explicitly account for the laser pulse, and (iv) to study the photodesorption as a function of the thickness of the metal film, and the laser parameters. As an important methodological aspect we also present a highly efficient numerical scheme to propagate the wave packet in a problem-adapted diabatic basis
In this paper we present time-dependent, quantum-dynamical simulations of photoinduced processes at solid surfaces involving nonadiabatic transitions of electrons to and from short-lived intermediate excited states. In particular, two-photon photoemission (2PPE) spectra of naked metal surfaces and free-standing metal films are considered. One major problem in both cases is the presence of electron-electron scattering, which is treated here in various ways. The first way is to adopt an open-system density matrix approach, in which a single electron is weakly coupled to a "bath" of other electrons. The second approach is based on a many-electron Schrodinger equation, which is solved with the help of a time-dependent configuration interactions singles (TD-CIS) method
We report simulations of laser-pulse driven many-electron dynamics by means of a simple, heuristic extension of the time-dependent configuration interaction singles (TD-CIS) approach. The extension allows for the treatment of ionizing states as nonstationary states with a finite, energy-dependent lifetime to account for above-threshold ionization losses in laser-driven many-electron dynamics. The extended TD-CIS method is applied to the following specific examples: (i) state-to-state transitions in the LiCN molecule which correspond to intramolecular charge transfer, (ii) creation of electronic wave packets in LiCN including wave packet analysis by pump-probe spectroscopy, and, finally, (iii) the effect of ionization on the dynamic polarizability of H-2 when calculated nonperturbatively by TD-CIS.
In this paper, we report simulations of laser-driven many-electron dynamics by means of the time-dependent configuration interaction singles (TD-CIS) approach. The method is capable of describing explicitly time-dependent phenomena beyond perturbation theory and is systematically improvable. In contrast to most time-dependent density functional methods it also allows us to treat long-range charge-transfer states properly. As an example, the laser-pulse induced charge transfer between a donor (ethylene) and an acceptor molecule (tetracyanoethylene, TCNE) is studied by means of TD-CIS. Also, larger aggregates consisting of several donors and/or acceptors are considered. It is shown that the charge distribution and hence the dipole moments of the systems under study are switchable by (a series of) laser pulses which induce selective, state-to-state electronic transitions.
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.