We report a comprehensive computational benchmarking of the structural and optical properties of a bis(chelate) copper(I) guanidine-quinoline complex. Using various (TD-)DFT flavors a strong influence of the basis set is found. Moreover, the amount of exact exchange shifts metal-to-ligand bands by 1 eV through the absorption spectrum. The BP86/6-311G(d) and B3LYP/def2-TZVP functional/basis set combinations were found to yield results in best agreement with the experimental data. In order to probe the general applicability of TD-DFT to excitations of copper bis(chelate) charge-transfer (CT) systems, we studied a small model system that on the one hand is accessible to methods of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) but still contains simple guanidine and imine groups. These calculations show that large quasiparticle energies of the order of several electronvolts are largely offset by exciton binding energies for optical excitations and that TD-DFT excitation energies deviate from MBPT results by at most 0.5 eV, further corroborating the reliability of our TD-DFT results. The latter result in a multitude of MLCT bands ranging from the visible region at 3.4 eV into the UV at 5.5 eV for the bis(chelate) complex. Molecular orbital analysis provided insight into the CT within these systems but gave mixed transitions. A meaningful transition assignment is possible, however, by using natural transition orbitals. Additionally, we performed a thorough conformational analysis as the correct description of the copper coordination is crucial for the prediction of optical spectra. We found that DFT identifies the correct conformational minimum and that the MLCTs are strongly dependent on the torsion of the chelate angles at the copper center. From the results, it is concluded that extensive benchmarking allows for the quantitative analyses of the CT behavior of copper bis(chelate) complexes within TD-DFT.

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the equilibrium geometry, vibrational modes, ionization energies, electron affinities, and optical response of [Cu2(btmgp)2(μ-O)2](2+) (oxo) and [Cu2(btmgp)2(μ-η(2):η(2)-O2)](2+) (peroxo) are presented. Comprehensive benchmarking shows that the description of the oxo-peroxo energetics is still a torture track for DFT, but finds the molecular geometry to be comparatively robust with respect to changes in the exchange-correlation functionals and basis sets. Pure functionals favor the oxo core found experimentally, whereas hybrid functionals shift the bias toward the peroxo core. Further stabilization of peroxo core results from relaxing the spin degrees of freedom using the broken-symmetry (BS) approach. Dispersion effects, conversely, tend to favor the oxo configuration. Triple-zeta basis sets are found to represent a sensible compromise between numerical accuracy and computational effort. Particular attention is paid to the modification of the electronic structure, optical transitions, and excited-state energies along the transition path between the oxo and peroxo species. The excited-state potential energy surface calculations indicate that two triplet states are involved in the transition that stabilize the BS solution. Charge decomposition and natural transition orbital analyses are used for obtaining microscopic insight into the molecular orbital interactions. Here, the crucial role of guanidine π-interactions is highlighted for the stabilization of the Cu2O2 core.

Based on the equilibrium geometries of [Cu2(dbdmed)2O2](2+) and [Cu2(en)2O2](2+) obtained within density-functional theory, we investigate their molecular electronic structure and optical response. Thereby results from occupation-constrained as well as time-dependent DFT (ΔSCF and TDDFT) are compared with Green's function-based approaches within many-body perturbation theory such as the GW approximation (GWA) to the quasiparticle energies and the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approach to the optical absorption. Concerning the ground-state energies and geometries, no clear trend with respect to the amount of exact exchange in the DFT calculations is found, and a strong dependence on the basis sets is to be noted. They affect the energy difference between bis-μ-oxo and μ-η(2):η(2)-peroxo complexes by as much as 0.8 eV (18 kcal/mol). Even stronger, up to 5 eV is the influence of the exchange-correlation functional on the gap values obtained from the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues. Not only the value itself but also the trends observed upon the bis-μ-oxo to μ-η(2):η(2)-peroxo transition are affected. In contrast, excitation energies obtained from ΔSCF and TDDFT are comparatively robust with respect to the details of the calculations. Noteworthy, in particular, is the near quantitative agreement between TDDFT and GWA+BSE for the optical spectra of [Cu2(en)2O2](2+).

We show that the electrical detection of electron-spin-echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) is a highly sensitive tool to study interfaces. Taking the Si/SiO2 interface defects in phosphorus-doped crystalline silicon as an example, we find that the main features of the observed echo modulation pattern allow us to develop a microscopic model for the dangling-bond-like P(b0) center by comparison with the results of ab initio calculations. The ESEEM spectrum is found to be far more sensitive to the defect characteristics than the spectrally resolved hyperfine splitting itself.

Ground- and excited-state properties of copper(II) charge-transfer systems have been investigated starting from density-functional calculations with particular emphasis on the role of (i) the exchange and correlation functional, (ii) the basis set, (iii) solvent effects, and (iv) the treatment of dispersive interactions. Furthermore (v), the applicability of TD-DFT to excitations of copper(II) bis(chelate) charge-transfer systems is explored by performing many-body perturbation theory (GW + BSE), independent-particle approximation and ΔSCF calculations for a small model system that contains simple guanidine and imine groups. These results show that DFT and TD-DFT in particular in combination with hybrid functionals are well suited for the description of the structural and optical properties, respectively, of copper(II) bis(chelate) complexes. Furthermore, it is found an accurate theoretical geometrical description requires the use of dispersion correction with Becke-Johnson damping and triple-zeta basis sets while solvent effects are small. The hybrid functionals B3LYP and TPSSh yielded best performance. The optical description is best with B3LYP, whereby heavily mixed molecular transitions of MLCT and LLCT character are obtained which can be more easily understood using natural transition orbitals. An natural bond orbital analysis sheds light on the donor properties of the different donor functions and the intraguanidine stabilization during coordination to copper(I) and (II).