Zilvinas Rinkevicius

The Dalton quantum chemistry program system

Dalton is a powerful general‐purpose program system for the study of molecular electronic structure at the Hartree–Fock, Kohn–Sham, multiconfigurational self‐consistent‐field, Møller–Plesset, configuration‐interaction, and coupled‐cluster levels of theory. Apart from the total energy, a wide variety of molecular properties may be calculated using these electronic‐structure models. Molecular gradients and Hessians are available for geometry optimizations, molecular dynamics, and vibrational studies, whereas magnetic resonance and optical activity can be studied in a gauge‐origin‐invariant manner. Frequency‐dependent molecular properties can be calculated using linear, quadratic, and cubic response theory. A large number of singlet and triplet perturbation operators are available for the study of one‐, two‐, and three‐photon processes. Environmental effects may be included using various dielectric‐medium and quantum‐mechanics/molecular‐mechanics models. Large molecules may be studied using linear‐scaling and massively parallel algorithms. Dalton is distributed at no cost from http://www.daltonprogram.org for a number of UNIX platforms.

Two-photon absorption in solution by means of time-dependent density-functional theory and the polarizable continuum model

We present the first study of two-photon absorption (TPA) of solvated molecules based on direct evaluation of TPA cross sections from the quadratic response of time-dependent perturbations. A set of prototypical two-photon (TP) chromophores has been selected and analyzed: a pure pi system (t-stilbene) and its substituted homologs obtained employing a donor (D) and an acceptor (A) group to probe the solvent effects along the series pi, D-pi-D, A-pi-D, and A-pi-A. For the selected systems we have calculated the TPA cross sections in different environments by means of the polarizable continuum model. The data have been analyzed to evaluate how the structural and environmental parameters contribute to the final two-photon absorption cross section. These include molecular structure, geometry relaxation in solution, polarity, and refractive index of the solvent. The performances of the three common functionals SVWN, BLYP, and B3LYP have been compared. The results show a significant solvent dependence of the TPA cross section and an unusual trend when passing from cyclohexane to water. The data have also been rationalized in terms of the main orbital excitations leading to the transitions. Finally, trends along the series have been described and comparison with experiments and previous calculations has been drawn.

Restricted density functional theory of linear time-dependent properties in open-shell molecules

In this paper we report the derivation and the performance of a spin-restricted density functional formalism for linear time-dependent properties in open-shell molecules. The formalism is based on an exponential parameterization of the density operator with the response functions defined through Ehrenfest’s principle. In addition to the derivation of formulas, details of implementation are given as well as a discussion of numerical results for excitation energies and dynamic polarizabilities for a selected set of radicals.

Density functional theory of nonlinear triplet response properties with applications to phosphorescence

We present density functional response theory generalized to triplet excitations. A method based on an exponential parametrization of the spin-dependent density operator is derived for the evaluation of linear and quadratic response functions for spin-dependent perturbations. The developed methodology is applicable to commonly available functionals, also hybrid functionals including exchange–correlation functionals at the general gradient-approximation level and fractional exact Hartree–Fock exchange. Illustrative calculations are presented for singlet–triplet transition moments and phosphorescence lifetimes, providing numerical data on these quantities for the first time using time-dependent density functional theory.

Spin-flip time dependent density functional theory applied to excited states with single, double, or mixed electron excitation character

We analyze the ability of spin-flip time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) to uniformly describe excited states of single, double, and mixed excitation character in closed-shell molecular systems, using the polyene oligomers as a primary test case. The results of comparison between conventional and spin-flip TD-DFT and with correlated ab initio methods indicate that spin-flip TD-DFT provides a more consistent description of the ordering and relative positions of the excited states than conventional TD-DFT provided a suitable exchange-correlation functional is used in the calculations. It is found that spin-flip TD-DFT provides a physically appealing picture of excitation processes which involve one or two electrons, as it captures their most important features and facilitates a more uniform description of excited states with different character. This makes spin-flip TD-DFT a promising approach for general modeling of excited states and spectra of medium and large size molecules, which exhibit low-lying excited states with strong double excitation character.

Hybrid density functional theory/molecular mechanics calculations of two-photon absorption of dimethylamino nitro stilbene in solution

The dimethylamino nitro stilbene (DANS) molecule is studied for exploring solvent effects on two-photon absorption using the quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) response theory approach, where the quantum part is represented by density functional theory. We have explored the role of geometrical change of the chromophore in solution, the importance of taking a dynamical average over the sampled structures and the role of a granular representation of the polarization and electrostatic interactions with the classically described medium. The line shape function was simulated by the QM/MM technique thereby allowing for non-empirical prediction of the absolute two-photon cross section. We report a maximum in the TPA cross section for a medium of intermediate solvent polarity (i.e. in chloroform) and provide the grounds for an explanation of this effect which recently has been experimentally observed for a series of charge transfer species in solvents of different polarity. The calculations of absorption energies reproduce well the positive solvatochromic behavior of DANS and are in good agreement with experimental spectra available for the chloroform and DMSO solvents. In line with recent development of the QM/MM response technique for color modeling, we find this methodology to offer a versatile tool to predict and analyze two-photon absorption phenomena taking place within a medium.

Calculations of nuclear magnetic shielding in paramagnetic molecules

We propose and evaluate first principles methods for calculating the nuclear shielding tensor in open-shell, paramagnetic molecules, dealing with the case of small spin–orbit coupling that, in turn, implies the best applicability to light, organic compounds. The formalism is consistent up to second order in the fine structure constant, and includes orbital, fully anisotropic dipolar, and isotropic contact contributions to the tensor. The proposed method is implemented within the ab initio single- and multiconfiguration self-consistent field as well as density functional theory frameworks. The applications include small main-group radicals and larger nitroxide radicals. The analysis of the results and comparison with the experimental nuclear magnetic resonance data, which are available for the latter compounds, indicate promising accuracy and applicability of the density functional theory method to chemically interesting problems.

Breakdown of the first hyperpolarizability/bond-length alternation parameter relationship

We have investigated the dependence of the static first hyperpolarizability on the bond-length alternation (BLA) parameter. Our analysis indicates that the validity of the first hyperpolarizability/BLA parameter relationship is restricted to the no-field, vacuum, limit, while it successively breaks down along with increasing polarity of a surrounding medium, becoming invalid, for instance, in an aqueous solution. This contention is based on a series of TD-DFT, TD-DFT/PCM and hybrid TD-DFT/MM calculations of the first hyperpolarizability for a set of molecular configurations generated from Car–Parrinello hybrid QM/MM simulations of the stilbazolium merocyanine chromophore in chloroform and water solvents, and on a rationalization by means of the two-state model for the first hyperpolarizability. The BLA dependence of the three parameters entering the two-state model is shown to be qualitatively different in vacuum and in solvents. Particularly, in the vacuum case, the difference between ground and excited state dipole moments goes to zero for a vanishing BLA, which is not true in the presence of an aqueous medium. In the aqueous medium, an opposing behavior of the parameters involved in the two-state model results in an almost constant first hyperpolarizability with varying BLA parameter.

Modeling the structure and absorption spectra of stilbazolium merocyanine in polar and nonpolar solvents using hybrid QM/MM techniques.

We have performed Car-Parrinello mixed quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (CP-QM/MM) calculations for stilbazolium merocyanine (SM) in polar and nonpolar solvents in order to explore the role of solute molecular geometry, solvation shell structure, and different interaction mechanisms on the absorption spectra and its dependence on solvent polarity. On the basis of the average bond length values and group charge distributions, we find that the SM molecule remains in a neutral quinonoid form in chloroform (a nonpolar solvent) while it transforms to a charge-separated benzenoid form in water (a polar solvent). Based on a quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical response technique, with different MM descriptions for the water environment, absorption spectra were obtained as averages over configurations derived from the CP-QM/MM simulations. We show that for SM in water the solute polarization plays a major role in predictions of the λ(max) and solvatochromic shift and that once this effect is included the contributions from solvent polarization and intermolecular charge transfer become less important. For SM in chloroform and water solvents, we have also performed absorption spectra calculations using a polarizable continuum model in order to address its relative performance compared to the QM/MM response technique. In the case of SM in water, our study supports the notion that, in order to predict accurate absorption spectra and solvatochromic shifts, it is important to use a discrete description of the solvent when it, as in water, is involved in site-specific interaction with the solute molecule. The technique is thus shown to outperform the more conventional polarizable continuum model in predicting the solvatochromic shift.

General excitations in time-dependent density functional theory

A general framework within time-dependent density functional theory is presented for the calculation of excitations to states of arbitrary multiplicity in molecular systems with a non-singlet ground state. The proposed approach combines generalized orbital excitation operators designed to generate excited states which have well-defined multiplicities and the noncollinear formulation of density functional theory and it can be straightforwardly implemented in currently existing density functional programs.