Alexandra Viel

Transition from molecular complex to quantum solvation in 4HeNOCS.

We present fully quantum calculations of the rotational energy levels and spectroscopic rotational constants of the linear OCS molecule in variable size clusters of 4He. The rotational constants of OCS are found to decrease monotonically from the gas phase value as the number of helium atoms increases to N=6, after which the average constant increases to saturation at the large droplet value by N=20. The minimum is shown to indicate a transition from a molecular complex to a quantum solvated molecule, with the former characterized by floppy but near rigid behavior, while the latter is characterized by nonzero permutation exchanges and a smaller extent of rigid coupling.

The ground state tunneling splitting of malonaldehyde: accurate full dimensional quantum dynamics calculations.

Benchmark calculations of the tunneling splitting in malonaldehyde using the full dimensional potential proposed by Yagi et al. are reported. Two exact quantum dynamics methods are used: the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) approach and the diffusion Monte Carlo based projection operator imaginary time spectral evolution (POITSE) method. A ground state tunneling splitting of 25.7+/-0.3 cm(-1) is calculated using POITSE. The MCTDH computation yields 25 cm(-1) converged to about 10% accuracy. These rigorous results are used to evaluate the accuracy of approximate dynamical approaches, e.g., the instanton theory.

Six-dimensional calculation of the vibrational spectrum of the HFCO molecule

Bound energy levels, up to 5000 cm−1 of internal excitation, have been computed for the HFCO molecule. An exact six-dimensional (6D) quantum Hamiltonian, expressed in terms of Jacobi vectors, has been used. It is shown to lead to a compact form of the kinetic energy operator, easy to implement in the calculations. The primary discrete variable representation (DVR) basis set has been contracted by means of the adiabatic pseudospectral method of Friesner et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 99, 324 (1993)]. Two different, global, potential energy surfaces have been considered. The calculated energy levels have been successfully assigned by an automatic labeling procedure. These levels have been compared to the experimental results, providing a test of the accuracy of the existing surfaces.

Photoinduced dynamics of the valence states of ethene: A six-dimensional potential-energy surface of three electronic states with several conical intersections

A six-dimensional analytic potential-energy surface of the three valence states (N, V, Z) of ethene has been constructed on the basis of complete-active-space ab initio calculations and ab initio calculations with perturbation theory of second order based on a complete active reference space. The nuclear coordinate space is spanned by the torsion, the C–C stretch coordinate, the left and right pyramidalization and the symmetric and antisymmetric scissor coordinates. The C–H stretch coordinates and the CH2 rocking angles are kept frozen at their ground-state equilibrium value. A diabatic representation of the valence states of ethene has been constructed within the framework of a Huckel-type model. The diabatic potential-energy elements are represented as analytic functions of the relevant coordinates. The parameters of the analytic functions have been determined by a least-squares fit of the eigenvalues of the diabatic potential-energy matrix to the ab initio data for one-dimensional and two-dimensional c...

Photoionization-induced dynamics of ammonia : Ab initio potential energy surfaces and time-dependent wave packet calculations for the ammonia cation

An analytical anharmonic six-dimensional three-sheeted potential energy surface for the ground and first excited states of the ammonia cation has been developed which is tailored to model the ultrafast photoinduced dynamics. Selected ab initio cuts, obtained by multireference configuration interaction calculations, have been used to determine the parameters of a diabatic representation for this Jahn-Teller and pseudo-Jahn-Teller system. The model includes higher-order coupling terms both for the Jahn-Teller and for the pseudo-Jahn-Teller matrix elements. The relaxation to the ground state is possible via dynamical pseudo-Jahn-Teller couplings involving the asymmetric bending and stretching coordinates. The photoelectron spectrum of NH3 and the internal conversion dynamics of NH3+ have been determined by wave packet propagation calculations employing the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method. Three different time scales are found in the dynamics calculations for the second absorption band. The ultrafast Jahn-Teller dynamics of the two excited states occurs on a 5 fs time scale. The major part of the internal conversion to the ground state takes place within a short time scale of 20 fs. This fast internal conversion is, however, incomplete and the remaining excited state population does not decay completely even within 100 fs.

The ground state tunneling splitting and the zero point energy of malonaldehyde : A quantum Monte Carlo determination

Quantum dynamics calculations of the ground state tunneling splitting and of the zero point energy of malonaldehyde on the full dimensional potential energy surface proposed by Yagi et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 1154, 10647 (2001)] are reported. The exact diffusion Monte Carlo and the projection operator imaginary time spectral evolution methods are used to compute accurate benchmark results for this 21-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface. A tunneling splitting of 25.7+/-0.3 cm-1 is obtained, and the vibrational ground state energy is found to be 15 122+/-4 cm-1. Isotopic substitution of the tunneling hydrogen modifies the tunneling splitting down to 3.21+/-0.09 cm-1 and the vibrational ground state energy to 14 385+/-2 cm-1. The computed tunneling splittings are slightly higher than the experimental values as expected from the potential energy surface which slightly underestimates the barrier height, and they are slightly lower than the results from the instanton theory obtained using the same potential energy surface.

Multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree calculations for tunneling splittings of vibrational states: Theoretical considerations and application to malonaldehyde

Full-dimensional multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree calculations on the tunneling splitting of the vibrational ground state and the low lying excited states of malonaldehyde are presented. Methodological developments utilizing the symmetry of double well systems for the efficient calculation of tunneling splittings are described and discussed. Important aspects of the theory underlying the previously communicated results for the ground state tunneling splitting [M. D. Coutinho-Neto et al., J. Chem. Phys. 121, 9207 (2004)] are detailed and further developments facilitating the calculation of tunneling splittings for vibrationally excited states are introduced. Utilizing these developments, the 14 lowest vibrational states of malonaldehyde, i.e., seven tunneling splittings, have been computed. The tunneling splittings are found to vary significantly depending on the particular vibrational excitation. This results in a complex pattern of vibrational levels. Studying the dependence of the tunneling splittings on the vibrational excitation, good agreement with available experimental results is found and intuitive interpretations of the results can be given.

Quantum structure and rotational dynamics of HCN in helium clusters

We present diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of ground states and rotationally excited states of HCN 4Hen, using our recently developed algorithm for importance sampled rigid body diffusion Monte Carlo [Viel et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. (in press, 2001)] within the mixed frame implementation. Excited states are studied with both fixed node approximations, and the Projection Operator Imaginary Time Spectral Evolution (POITSE) method that allows nodal constraints to be circumvented. Improvements in the POITSE algorithm allow excited states of clusters with up to 80 degrees of freedom to be determined here. The results presented here show that the rotational dynamics of the HCN molecule in 4He clusters are very different from the behavior of heavier molecules such as SF6. Detailed analysis of ground state densities shows that the lighter HCN molecule induces negligible adiabatic following of the helium density as a result of its rotational motion. The excited state calculations show that for small numbers ...

Quantum mechanical calculation of the rate constant for the reaction H+O2→OH+O

Quantum rate calculations for the H+O2→HO+O combustion reaction, as well as for the reverse reaction, are reported. Using the DMBE IV potential energy surface, the cumulative reaction probability N0(E) has been directly computed for total angular momentum J=0, by means of the Seideman, Manthe and Miller Lanczos-based absorbing boundary condition method [J. Chem. Phys. 96, 4412 (1992); 99, 3411 (1993)]. Special attention has been paid to the definition of the molecular basis set, and to the sensitivity of the results to the absorbing potentials used in the asymptotic regions. The N0(E) results show very good overall agreement with the coupled channel calculations of Pack et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 102, 5998 (1995)], although the highly oscillatory behavior just above threshold renders such a comparison difficult in that energy range. The behavior of the J≠0 cumulative reaction probability has been estimated from calculations using the Jz-conserving approximation for J values in the range 10–70. This allowed us...

Photoinduced dynamics of ethene in the N, V, and Z valence states: A six-dimensional nonadiabatic quantum dynamics investigation

The photoinduced dynamics of ethene following pi-->pi(*) excitation is investigated by quantum wave-packet dynamics on three coupled six-dimensional diabatic potential-energy surfaces representing the N, V, and Z valence states, which have been developed previously. The C-C stretching and torsion, as well as the pyramidalization and scissoring of both CH(2) groups are included in this description. The wave-packet calculations have been performed using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for a time period up to 100 fs. While a small amount of population transfer to the electronic ground state is found within this period, the overall population decay time of the V state is found to exceed the 100 fs range significantly. The autocorrelation function of the wave packet and the stationary absorption spectrum of the V state also have been calculated. It is found that both the torsional mode as well as the C-C stretching mode contribute to the very extended vibrational structure of the absorption spectrum, and that both modes are strongly coupled. At least on the present ab initio surface of limited dimensionality, the speed of pyramidalization of 90 degrees twisted ethene appears as the bottleneck for the ultrafast radiationless decay of the V state.