arXiv subjects

Wolfgang Domcke

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Domcke.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ab Initio Simulation of Femtosecond Time-Resolved Multi-Pulse Spectroscopies applied to the Heptazine$\cdots$H$_2$O Complex

In multi-dimensional time-resolved spectroscopic experiments, multiple (more than two) short laser pulses with variable pulse delay times are employed for the time-resolved exploration of the photoinduced dynamics of molecular chromophores. In the present work, the quasi-classical doorway-window (DW) methodology recently developed for transient absorption pump-probe (PP) spectroscopy [M. F. Gelin et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2021, 17, 2394] has been generalized to multi-pulse spectroscopies. Pump-push-probe (PPP) spectroscopy (involving three laser pulses) and pump-induced two-dimensional (P-2D) spectroscopy (involving five laser pulses) are considered as specific examples. The quasi-classical DW approximation results in conceptually simple and computationally efficient simulation protocols which are suitable for implementation with $ab$ $initio$ on-the-fly electronic-structure calculations. Simulations of PPP and P-2D spectra performed for the hydrogen-bonded heptazine$\cdots$H$_2$O complex illustrate that pump-stimulated experiments provide much richer information on the ultrafast radiationless relaxation dynamics of the excited electronic states of the heptazine$\cdots$H$_2$O complex than conventional PP and 2D experiments.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

WaveMixings.jl: a Julia package for performing on-the-fly time-resolved nonlinear electronic spectra from quasi-classical trajectories

We present an efficient numerical implementation of the quasi-classical doorway-window approximation, specifically designed for on-the-fly simulations of time-resolved nonlinear spectroscopic signals in the Julia package WaveMixings.jl. The package contains modules that facilitate standard tasks such as input/output data handling, data filtering, and post-processing, among others. WaveMixings.jl includes implementations of various methods developed by the authors, including integral and dispersed transient absorption pump-probe signals and two-dimensional spectra. By developing WaveMixings.jl we aim to create a versatile platform to perform simulations and develop methodologies within the quasi-classical doorway-window approximation framework.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Simulation of Pump-Push Molecular Dynamics in the Heptazine-H2O Complex

Pump-push-probe spectroscopy was employed for the exploration of charge-separation processes in organic photovoltaic blends as well as for proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET) reactions in hydrogen-bonded complexes of tri-anisole-heptazine with substituted phenols in organic solvents. In the present work, the electron and proton transfer dynamics driven by a femtosecond pump pulse and a time-delayed femtosecond push pulse has been studied with ab initio on-the-fly nonadiabatic trajectory calculations for the hydrogen-bonded heptazine-H2O complex. While the dynamics following the pump pulse is dominated by ultrafast radiationless energy relaxation to the long-lived lowest singlet excited state (S1) of the heptazine chromophore with only minor PCET reactivity, the re-excitation of the transient S1 population by the push pulse results in a much higher PCET reaction probability. These results illustrate that pump-push excitation has the potential to unravel the individual electron and proton transfer processes of PCET reactions on femtosecond time scales.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2024

Imaging the Photochemistry of the Hydrogen-Bonded Heptazine-Water Complex with Femtosecond Time-Resolved Spectroscopy: A Computational Study

Graphitic carbon nitride ($g$-CN) has attracted vast interest as a promising inexpensive metal-free photocatalyst for water splitting with solar photons. The heptazine (Hz) molecule is the building block of graphitic carbon nitride. The photochemistry of the Hz molecule and derivatives thereof in protic environments has been the subject of several recent experimental and computational studies. In the present work, the hydrogen-bonded Hz$\cdots$H$_2$O complex was adopted as a model system for the exploration of photoinduced electron and proton transfer processes in this complex with quasi-classical nonadiabatic trajectory simulations, using the $ab$ $initio$ ADC(2) electronic-structure method and a computationally efficient surface-hopping algorithm. The population of the optically excited bright $^1ππ^*$ state of the Hz chromophore relaxes through three $^1nπ^*$ states and a low-lying charge-transfer state, which drives proton transfer from H$_2$O to Hz, to the long-lived optically dark S$_1$($ππ^*$) state of Hz. The imaging of this ultrafast and complex dynamics with femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (TA) pump-probe (PP) spectroscopy and two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroscopy (ES) was computationally explored in the framework of the quasi-classical doorway-window approximation. By comparison of the spectra of the Hz$\cdots$H$_2$O complex with those of the free Hz molecule, the effects of the hydrogen bond on the ultrafast internal conversion dynamics can be identified in the spectroscopic signals. Albeit the TA PP and 2D ES spectroscopies are primarily sensitive to electronic excited-state dynamics and less so to proton transfer dynamics, they nevertheless can provide mechanistic insights which can contribute to the acceleration of the optimization of photocatalysts for water splitting.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Water Oxidation and Hydrogen Evolution with Organic Photooxidants: A Theoretical Perspective

In this perspective, we discuss a novel water-splitting scenario, namely the direct oxidation of water molecules by organic photooxidants in hydrogen-bonded chromophore-water complexes. In comparison with the established scenario of semiconductor-based water splitting, the distance of electron transfer processes is thereby reduced from mesoscopic scales to the Ångstrøm scale and the time scale is reduced from milliseconds to femtoseconds, which suppresses competing loss processes. The concept is illustrated by computational studies for the heptazine-H2O complex. The excited-state landscape of this complex has been characterized with ab initio electronic-structure methods and the proton-coupled electron-transfer dynamics has been explored with nonadiabatic dynamics simulations. A unique feature of the heptazine chromophore is the existence of a low-lying and exceptionally long-lived 1ππ* state in which a substantial part of the photon energy can be stored for hundreds of nanoseconds and is available for the oxidation of water molecules. The calculations reveal that the absorption spectra and the photochemical functionalities of heptazine chromophores can be systematically tailored by chemical substitution. The options of harvesting hydrogen and the problems posed by the high reactivity of OH radicals are discussed.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Are Heptazine-Based Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Chromophores Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF) or Inverted Singlet-Triplet (IST) Systems?

Two chromophores derived from heptazine, HAP-3MF and HAP-3TPA, were synthesized and tested as emitters in light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by Adachi and coworkers. Both emitters were shown to exhibit quantum efficiencies which exceed the theoretical maximum of conventional fluorescent OLEDs. The enhanced emission efficiency was explained by the mechanism of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). In the present work, the electronic excitation energies and essential features of the topography of the excited-state potential-energy surfaces of HAP-3MF and HAP-3TPA have been investigated with a wave-function based ab initio method (ADC(2)). It is found that HAP-3MF is an inverted singlet-triplet (IST) system, that is, the energies of the S1and T1states are robustly inverted in violation of Hund's multiplicity rule. Notably, HAP-3MF presumably is the first IST emitter which was implemented in an OLED device. In HAP-3TPA, on the other hand, the vertical excitation energies of the S1 and T1 states are essentially degenerate. The excited states exhibit vibrational stabilization energies of similar magnitude along different relaxation coordinates, resulting in adiabatic excitation energies which also are nearly degenerate. HAP-3TPA is found to be a chromophore at the borderline of TADF and IST systems. The spectroscopic data reported by Adachi and coworkers forHAP-3MF and HAP-3TPA are analysed in the light of these computational results.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Effects of high pulse intensity and chirp in two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of an atomic vapor

The effects of high pulse intensity and chirp on two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy signals are experimentally investigated in the highly non-perturbative regime using atomic rubidium vapor as clean model system. Data analysis is performed based on higher-order Feynman diagrams and non-perturbative numerical simulations of the system response. It is shown that higher-order contributions may lead to a fundamental change of the static appearance and beating-maps of the 2D spectra and that chirped pulses enhance or suppress distinct higher-order pathways. We further give an estimate of the threshold intensity beyond which the high-intensity effects become visible for the system under consideration.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Photooxidation of water with heptazine-based molecular photocatalysts: Insights from spectroscopy and computational chemistry

We present a conspectus of recent joint spectroscopic and computational studies which provided novel insight into the photochemistry of hydrogen-bonded complexes of the heptazine (Hz) chromophore with hydroxylic substrate molecules (water and phenol). It was found that a functionalized derivative of Hz, tri-anisole-heptazine (TAHz), can photooxidize water and phenol in a homogeneous photochemical reaction. This allows the exploration of the basic mechanisms of the proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET) process involved in the water photooxidation reaction in well-defined complexes of chemically tunable molecular chromophores with chemically tunable substrate molecules. The unique properties of the excited electronic states of the Hz molecule and derivatives thereof are highlighted. The potential energy landscape relevant for the PCET reaction has been characterized by judicious computational studies. These data provided the basis for the demonstration of rational laser control of PCET reactions in TAHz-phenol complexes by pump-push-probe spectroscopy, which sheds light on the branching mechanisms occurring by the interaction of nonreactive locally excited states of the chromophore with reactive intermolecular charge-transfer states. Extrapolating from these results, we propose a general scenario which unravels the complex photoinduced water-splitting reaction into simple sequential light-driven one-electron redox reactions followed by simple dark radical-radical recombination reactions.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

Solar energy harvesting with carbon nitrides: Do we understand the mechanism?

The photocatalytic splitting of water into molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen with sunlight is the dream reaction for solar energy conversion. Since decades, transition-metal-oxide semiconductors and supramolecular organometallic structures have been extensively explored as photocatalysts for solar water splitting. More recently, polymeric carbon nitride materials consisting of triazine or heptazine building blocks have attracted considerable attention as hydrogen-evolution photocatalysts. The mechanism of hydrogen evolution with polymeric carbon nitrides is discussed throughout the current literature in terms of the familiar concepts developed for photoelectrochemical water splitting with semiconductors since the 1970s. We discuss in this perspective an alternative mechanistic paradigm for photoinduced water splitting with carbon nitrides, which focusses on the specific features of the photochemistry of aromatic N-heterocycles in aqueous environments. It is shown that a water molecule which is hydrogen-bonded to an N-heterocycle can be decomposed into hydrogen and hydroxyl radicals by two simple sequential photochemical reactions. This concept is illustrated by first-principles calculations of excited-state reaction paths and their energy profiles for hydrogen-bonded complexes of pyridine, triazine and heptazine with a water molecule.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2014

Nonadiabatic nuclear dynamics of the ammonia cation studied by surface hopping classical trajectory calculations

The Landau--Zener (LZ) type classical-trajectory surface-hopping algorithm is applied to the nonadiabatic nuclear dynamics of the ammonia cation after photoionization of the ground-state neutral molecule to the excited states of the cation. The algorithm employs the recently proposed formula for nonadiabatic LZ transition probabilities derived from the adiabatic potential energy surfaces. The evolution of the populations of the ground state and the two lowest excited adiabatic states is calculated up to 200 fs. The results agree well with quantum simulations available for the first 100 fs based on the same potential energy surfaces. Four different time scales are detected for the nuclear dynamics: Ultrafast Jahn--Teller dynamics between the excited states on a 5 fs time scale; fast transitions between the excited state and the ground state within a time scale of 20 fs; relatively slow partial conversion of a first-excited-state population to the ground state within a time scale of 100 fs; and nearly constant populations after roughly 120 fs due to a dynamical equilibrium between all three states. The latter provides a possible explanation of the experimental evidence that ammonia cation is nonfluorescent.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2012

Exact quantum master equation for a molecular aggregate coupled to a harmonic bath

We consider a molecular aggregate consisting of $N$ identical monomers. Each monomer comprises two electronic levels and a single harmonic mode. The monomers interact with each other via dipole-dipole forces. The monomer vibrational modes are bilinearly coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. This is a prototypical model for the description of coherent exciton transport, from quantum dots to photosynthetic antennae. We derive an exact quantum master equation for such systems. Computationally, the master equation may be useful for the testing of various approximations employed in theories of quantum transport. Physically, it offers a plausible explanation of the origins of long-lived coherent optical responses of molecular aggregates in dissipative environments.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Vibronic effects in single molecule conductance: First-principles description and application to benezenealkanethiolates between gold electrodes

The effect of vibrational motion on resonant charge transport through single molecule junctions is investigated. The study is based on a combination of first-principles electronic structure calculations to characterize the system and inelastic scattering theory to calculate transport properties. The extension of the methodology to describe hole transport through occupied molecular orbitals is discussed. The methodology is applied to molecular junctions where a benzene molecule is connected via alkanethiolate bridges to two gold electrodes. The results demonstrate that, depending on the coupling between the electronic $π$-system of the benzene ring and the gold electrodes, vibronic coupling may have a significant influence on the transport properties of the molecular junction.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Charge transport through a flexible molecular junction

Vibrationally inelastic electron transport through a flexible molecular junction is investigated. The study is based on a mechanistic model for a biphenyl molecule between two metal electrodes. Employing methods from electron-molecule scattering theory, which allow a numerically exact treatment, we study the effect of vibrational excitation on the transmission probability for different parameter regimes. The current-voltage characteristic is analyzed for different temperatures, based on a Landauer-type formula. Furthermore, the process of electron assisted tunneling between adjacent wells in the torsional potential of the molecule is discussed and the validity of approximate methods to describe the transmission probability is investigated.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Theory of Vibrationally Inelastic Electron Transport through Molecular Bridges

Vibrationally inelastic electron transport through a molecular bridge that is connected to two leads is investigated. The study is based on a generic model of vibrational excitation in resonant transmission of electrons through a molecular junction. Employing methods from electron-molecule scattering theory, the transmittance through the molecular bridge can be evaluated numerically exactly. The current through the junction is obtained approximately using a Landauer-type formula. Considering different parameter regimes, which include both the case of a molecular bridge that is weakly coupled to the leads, resulting in narrow resonance structures, and the opposite case of a broad resonance caused by strong interaction with the leads, we investigate the characteristic effects of coherent and dissipative vibrational motion on the electron transport. Furthermore, the validity of widely used approximations such as the wide-band approximation and the restriction to elastic transport mechanisms is investigated in some detail.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗