Robert J. Cave

Generalization of the Mulliken-Hush treatment for the calculation of electron transfer matrix elements

Abstract A new method for the calculation of the electronic coupling matrix element for electron transfer processes is introduced and results for several systems are presented. The method can be applied to ground and excited state systems and can be used in cases where several states interact strongly. Within the set of states chosen it is a non-perturbative treatment, and can be implemented using quantities obtained solely in terms of the adiabatic states. Several applications based on quantum chemical calculations are briefly presented. Finally, since quantities for adiabatic states are the only input to the method, it can also be used with purely experimental data to estimate electron transfer matrix elements.

Calculation of electronic coupling matrix elements for ground and excited state electron transfer reactions: Comparison of the generalized Mulliken-Hush and block diagonalization methods

Two independent methods are presented for the nonperturbative calculation of the electronic coupling matrix element (Hab) for electron transfer reactions using ab initio electronic structure theory. The first is based on the generalized Mulliken–Hush (GMH) model, a multistate generalization of the Mulliken Hush formalism for the electronic coupling. The second is based on the block diagonalization (BD) approach of Cederbaum, Domcke, and co-workers. Detailed quantitative comparisons of the two methods are carried out based on results for (a) several states of the system Zn2OH2+ and (b) the low-lying states of the benzene–Cl atom complex and its contact ion pair. Generally good agreement between the two methods is obtained over a range of geometries. Either method can be applied at an arbitrary nuclear geometry and, as a result, may be used to test the validity of the Condon approximation. Examples of nonmonotonic behavior of the electronic coupling as a function of nuclear coordinates are observed for Zn2O...

Double excitations within time-dependent density functional theory linear response

Within the adiabatic approximation, time-dependent density functional theory yields only single excitations. Near states of double excitation character, the exact exchange-correlation kernel has a strong dependence on frequency. We derive the exact frequency-dependent kernel when a double excitation mixes with a single excitation, well separated from the other excitations, in the limit that the electron--electron interaction is weak. Building on this, we construct a nonempirical approximation for the general case, and illustrate our results on a simple model.

Constructing diabatic states from adiabatic states: Extending generalized Mulliken–Hush to multiple charge centers with Boys localization

This article shows that, although Boys localization is usually applied to single-electron orbitals, the Boys method itself can be applied to many electron molecular states. For the two-state charge-transfer problem, we show analytically that Boys localization yields the same charge-localized diabatic states as those found by generalized Mulliken-Hush theory. We suggest that for future work in electron transfer, where systems have more than two charge centers, one may benefit by using a variant of Boys localization to construct diabatic potential energy surfaces and extract electronic coupling matrix elements. We discuss two chemical examples of Boys localization and propose a generalization of the Boys algorithm for creating diabatic states with localized spin density that should be useful for Dexter triplet-triplet energy transfer.

The initial and final states of electron and energy transfer processes: diabatization as motivated by system-solvent interactions.

For a system which undergoes electron or energy transfer in a polar solvent, we define the diabatic states to be the initial and final states of the system, before and after the nonequilibrium transfer process. We consider two models for the system-solvent interactions: A solvent which is linearly polarized in space and a solvent which responds linearly to the system. From these models, we derive two new schemes for obtaining diabatic states from ab initio calculations of the isolated system in the absence of solvent. These algorithms resemble standard approaches for orbital localization, namely, the Boys and Edmiston-Ruedenberg (ER) formalisms. We show that Boys localization is appropriate for describing electron transfer [Subotnik et al., J. Chem. Phys. 129, 244101 (2008)] while ER describes both electron and energy transfer. Neither the Boys nor the ER methods require definitions of donor or acceptor fragments and both are computationally inexpensive. We investigate one chemical example, the case of oligomethylphenyl-3, and we provide attachment/detachment plots whereby the ER diabatic states are seen to have localized electron-hole pairs.

A model for orientation effects in electron‐transfer reactions

A method for solving the single‐particle Schrodinger equation with an oblate spheroidal potential of finite depth is presented. The wave functions are then used to calculate the matrix element T_BA which appears in theories of nonadiabatic electron transfer. The results illustrate the effects of mutual orientation and separation of the two centers on TBA. Trends in these results are discussed in terms of geometrical and nodal structure effects. Analytical expressions related to T_BA for states of spherical wells are presented and used to analyze the nodal structure effects for T_BA for the spheroidal wells.

Quasidegenerate variational perturbation theory and the calculation of first‐order properties from variational perturbation theory wave functions

In previous work on the treatment of correlation in molecular systems we have applied a multireference version of second‐order Hylleraas variational perturbation theory. The choice made for the partitioning of H treated the interactions between the correlating functions to infinite order and gave the corrections to the wave function to first order. The method was shown to be accurate in many cases, but became less so when near degeneracies occurred between the reference energy and other eigenvalues of H0. In this article we introduce an effective Hamiltonian method that is analogous to variational perturbation theory, but which is significantly more accurate when near degeneracies are important. This quasidegenerate variational perturbation theory (QDVPT) is an explicitly multireference procedure and treats the entire reference space as a quasidegenerate space. A novel method for solving the QDVPT equations is introduced that avoids explicit construction of the effective Hamiltonian. As a result, the work...

Non-vertical excitation energies for low-lying singlet states of butadiene and hexatriene

Abstract Results are presented from ab initio CI calculations for three low-lying singlet states of all-trans-butadiene and -hexatriene. Using estimates of relaxed (planar) excited-state geometries we have calculated 0-0 excitation energies for the 1 1 B u and 2 1 A g states for each molecule. We obtain good agreement with experimental 0-0 transition energies for the 1 1 B u , states. For both molecules the 1 1 B u , and 2 1 A g 0-0 transition energies are found to be essentially equal. The energies of the 2 1 A g states are shown to be highly sensitive to geometric variations.

Theoretical studies of electron transfer in metal dimers: XY+→X+Y, where X, Y=Be, Mg, Ca, Zn, Cd

The electronic matrix element responsible for electron exchange in a series of metal dimers was calculated using ab initio wave functions. The distance dependence is approximately exponential for a large range of internuclear separations. A localized description, where the two nonorthogonal structures characterizing the electron localized at the left and right sites are each obtained self‐consistently, is found to provide the best description of the electron exchange process. We find that Gaussian basis sets are capable of predicting the expected exponential decay of the electronic interactions even at quite large internuclear distances.

Hylleraas variational perturbation theory: Application to correlation problems in molecular systems

Hylleraas variational perturbation theory is applied through second order in energy to estimate the correlation energy in several molecular systems. The specific choices for H0 and V which are made lead to equations nearly identical to the multireference linearized coupled‐cluster method of Laidig and Bartlett. The results obtained are in virtually exact agreement where comparisons have been made. Results from test calculations are presented for BeH2, CH2, and C2H4. In addition, the utility of perturbation theory for selecting correlating configurations is examined. This procedure is found to be quite accurate while significantly reducing the size of the system of linear equations to be solved.