Conjugated donor-acceptor block co-oligomers that self-organize into D-A mesomorphic arrays have raised increasing interest due to their potential applications in organic solar cells. We report here a combined experimental and computational study of charge transfer (CT) state formation and recombination in isolated donor-spacer-acceptor oligomers based on bisthiophene-fluorene (D) and perylene diimide (A), which have recently shown to self-organize to give a mesomorphic lamellar structure at room temperature. Using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory in combination with the Marcus-Jortner formalism, the observed increase of the CT lifetimes is rationalized in terms of a reduced electronic coupling between D and A brought about by the chemical design of the donor moiety. A marked dependence of the CT lifetime on solvent polarity is observed, underscoring the importance of electrostatic effects and those of the environment at large. The present investigation therefore calls for a more comprehensive design approach including the effects of molecular packing.

We review recent work employing high-dimensional quantum dynamical techniques to study ultrafast charge separation in functional organic materials, in view of understanding the key microscopic factors that lead to efficient charge generation in photovoltaics applications. As highlighted by recent experiments, these processes can be guided by quantum coherence, despite the presence of static and dynamic disorder. The present approach combines first-principles parametrized lattice Hamiltonians, based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) and/or high-level electronic structure calculations, with accurate quantum dynamics simulations using the Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method. This contribution specifically addresses the mechanism of charge generation in (i) regioregular oligothiophene-fullerene aggregates, and (ii) highly ordered oligothiophene-perylene diimide co-oligomer assemblies. These studies highlight that chemical design of donor-acceptor combinations needs to account for the effects of electronic delocalization and the modified energetics due to molecular packing, as well as multiple transfer pathways and internal conversion channels induced by vibronic interactions.excitonic states, molecular packing, organic photovoltaics, quantum dynamics, ultrafast charge separation | I N TR ODU C TI ONIn organic donor-acceptor (DA) materials developed for photovoltaics applications, the break-up of photogenerated excitons at DA heterojunction interfaces initiates the irreversible separation of charge carriers. [1,2] Over the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that the efficiency of this process depends on a complex interplay of different factors, such that design principles based on the engineering of molecular structure and DA band offsets are not necessarily sufficient. Indeed, the photochemical processes inherent to the molecular donor and acceptor materials necessitate a molecular-level analysis that may deviate from the basic picture derived from semiconductor physics. This is underscored by an increasing body of evidence from time-resolved spectroscopies [3][4][5][6][7] showing that the elementary energy and charge transfer (CT) processes in typical photovoltaic materials are often of quantum coherent character. Conventional kinetic descriptions are therefore not apt to render a faithful picture of these elementary steps, and may only be valid on longer time scales where hopping type transport dynamics sets in.Even long-range electron-hole separation under the effect of a Coulomb barrier may not necessarily obey the slow, thermally activated dynamics described by the Onsager-Braun model. [8] Indeed, recent time-resolved experiments, for example, for prototypical blends of poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and the fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C 61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and related systems, report ultrafast longrange charge separation, especially in materials exhibiting regioregular morphologies. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] To explain these ob...

The vibronic absorption spectrum of the electric dipole forbidden and vibronically allowed S( A) ← S( A) transition of formaldehyde is calculated by Gaussian wavepacket and semiclassical methods, along with numerically exact reference calculations, using the potential energy surface of Fu, Shepler, and Bowman ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 7957). Specifically, the variational multiconfigurational Gaussian (vMCG) approach and the Herman-Kluk semiclassical initial value representation (HK-SCIVR) are compared to assess the accuracy and convergence of these methods, benchmarked against numerically exact time-dependent wavepacket propagation (TDWP) on the reference potential energy surface. The vMCG calculation is shown to converge quite well with about 100 variationally evolving Gaussian functions and using a local cubic expansion instead of the conventional local harmonic approximation. By contrast, the HK-SCIVR approach with ∼10 trajectories reproduces the vibrationally structured spectral envelope correctly but yields a strongly broadened spectrum. The comparison of the computed absorption spectrum with experiment shows that the relevant vibronic progressions are reasonably reproduced by all computations, but deviations of the order of 10-100 cm occur, underscoring that both electronic structure calculations and dynamical approaches remain challenging in the calculation of typical small-molecule excited-state spectra by trajectory-based methods.

Combined electronic structure and quantum dynamical calculations are employed to investigate charge separation in a novel class of covalently bound bisthiophene-perylene diimide type donor-acceptor (DA) co-oligomer aggregates. In an earlier spectroscopic study of this DA system in a smectic liquid crystalline (LC) film, efficient and ultrafast (subpicosecond) initial charge separation was found to be followed by rapid recombination. By comparison, the same DA system in solution exhibits ultrafast resonant energy transfer followed by slower (picosecond scale) charge separation. The present first-principles study explains these contrasting observations, highlighting the role of an efficient intermolecular charge-transfer pathway that results from the molecular packing in the LC phase. Despite the efficiency of this primary charge-transfer step, long-range charge separation is impeded by a comparatively high Coulomb barrier in conjunction with small electron- and hole-transfer integrals. Quantum dynamical calculations are carried out for a fragment-based model Hamiltonian, parametrized by ab initio second-order Algebraic Diagrammatic Construction (ADC(2)) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) electronic structure calculations. Simulations of coherent vibronic quantum dynamics for up to 156 electronic states and 48 modes are performed using the Multi-Layer Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) method. Excellent agreement with experimentally determined charge separation time scales is obtained, and the spatially coherent nature of the dynamics is analyzed.

A method to refine organic crystal structures from powder diffraction data with incorrect lattice parameters has been developed. The method is based on the similarity measure developed by de Gelder et al. [J. Comput. Chem. (2001), 22, 273-289], using the cross- and auto-correlation functions of a simulated and an experimental powder pattern. The lattice parameters, molecular position, molecular orientation and selected intramolecular degrees of freedom are optimized until the similarity measure reaches a maximum; subsequently, a Rietveld refinement is carried out. The program FIDEL (FIt with DEviating Lattice parameters) implements this method. The procedure is also suitable for unindexed powder data, powder diagrams of very low quality and powder diagrams of non-phase-pure samples. Various applications are shown, including structure determinations from powder data using crystal structure predictions by standard force-field methods. Other useful applications include the automatic structure determination from powder data starting from the crystal structures of isostructural compounds (e.g. a solvate, hydrate or chemical derivative), or from crystal data measured at a different temperature or pressure.

We report on first applications of the Two-Layer Gaussian-based Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree (2L-GMCTDH) method [Römer et al., J. Chem. Phys. 138, 064106 (2013)] for high-dimensional quantum propagation using variational Gaussian basis sets. This method circumvents the limitations of conventional variational Gaussian wavepacket (GWP) methods by introducing a hierarchical wavefunction representation with a fully flexible first layer composed of orthogonal single-particle functions, which are in turn expressed as superpositions of GWPs of fixed width. The method is applied to a model Hamiltonian describing vibrational energy transport through a molecular chain. The model combines bilinear site-to-site couplings with site-local couplings induced by cubic anharmonicities. We report on simulation results for realizations comprising 5 sites with 35 vibrational modes and 18 sites with 90 vibrational modes, which are shown to be in excellent agreement with reference calculations by the Multi-Layer MCTDH method.

Analysis of trajectory similarity and configuration similarity in on-the-fly surface-hopping simulation on multi-channel nonadiabatic photoisomerization dynamics

The gas-phase photoelectron spectra of ethene, formaldehyde, formic acid and difluoromethane are simulated using the reflection principle and the unrestricted second-order algebraic diagrammatic construction [UADC(2)] scheme of the polarization propagator for the computation of the vertical-excited states of the cations at the equilibrium geometry of the parent neutral molecule. Comparison is made with experimental spectra and the established highly accurate ionization IP-ADC(3) theory to gain insight into the accuracy and applicability of recently developed excitation UADC schemes. Within UADC(2), we distinguish between the strict and extended schemes UADC(2)-s and UADC(2)-x. While the latter approach is found to slightly underestimate the experimental photoelectron spectra by 0.3 eV and can thus be regarded as a reliable scheme within the limits of the applied reflection principle and the underlying approximations, the UADC(2)-s scheme tends to overestimate the excitation energies by about 0.5 eV. Time-dependent density functional theory is also applied in combination with the standard B3LYP xc functional and turns out to be a useful computational tool for the simulation of the photoelectron spectra of the studied species.