A quantum Langevin equation approach for two-dimensional electronic spectra of coupled vibrational and electronic dynamics.

Abstract

We present an efficient method to simulate two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectra of condensed-phase systems with an emphasis on treating quantum nuclear wave packet dynamics explicitly. To this end, we combine a quantum Langevin equation (QLE) approach for dissipation and a perturbative scheme to calculate three-pulse photon-echo polarizations based on wave packet dynamics under the influence of external fields. The proposed dynamical approach provides a consistent description of nuclear quantum dynamics, pulse-overlap effects, and vibrational relaxation, enabling simulations of 2D electronic spectra with explicit and non-perturbative treatment of coupled electronic-nuclear dynamics. We apply the method to simulate 2D electronic spectra of a displaced-oscillator model in the condensed phase and discuss the spectral and temporal evolutions of 2D signals. Our results show that the proposed QLE approach is capable of describing vibrational relaxation, decoherence, and vibrational coherence transfer, as well as their manifestations in spectroscopic signals. Furthermore, vibrational quantum beats specific for excited-state vs ground-state nuclear wave packet dynamics can also be identified. We anticipate that this method will provide a useful tool to conduct theoretical studies of 2D spectroscopy for strong vibronically coupled systems and to elucidate intricate vibronic couplings in complex molecular systems.