Surface-enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA) is investigated theoretically for molecules near a metal nanoshell. For this purpose, induced molecular electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole moments must all be included. The incident field and the induced multipole fields all scatter from the nanoshell, and the scattered waves can be calculated via extended Mie theory. It is straightforward in this framework to calculate the incident frequency dependence of SEROA intensities, i.e., SEROA excitation profiles. The differential Raman scattering is examined in detail for a simple chiroptical model that provides analytical forms for the relevant dynamical molecular response tensors. This allows a detailed investigation into circumstances that simultaneously provide strong enhancement of differential intensities and remain selective for molecules with chirality.

Surface-enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA) in molecules near a spherical metal nanoshell is examined for different experimental polarization schemes. This is accomplished within extended Mie theory, including both the nanoparticle surface plasmon modes and the radiating molecular multipole fields. Analytical simplification of the scattering expansion is accomplished through judicious use of the spherical harmonic addition theorem. Special attention is paid to the dependence of backscatter circular polarization difference signals on molecular direction from the spherical nanoparticle and to the conditions that ensure the differences occur only for molecules of chiral character. Dual circular polarization strategies are determined to have special advantages in these circumstances, and the corresponding excitation profiles for a simple chiroptical model are analyzed in detail to suggest preferred excitation wavelengths.

A particular basis set method developed by one of the authors, involving maximally localized orthogonal Weyl-Heisenberg wavelets (or "weylets") and a phase space truncation scheme, has been successfully applied to exact quantum calculations for many degrees of freedom (DOF's) [B. Poirier and A. Salam, J. Chem. Phys. 121, 1740 (2004)]. However, limitations in accuracy arise in the many-DOF case, owing to memory limits on conventional computers. This paper addresses this accuracy limitation by introducing phase space region operators (PSRO's) that customize individual weylet basis functions for the problem of interest. The construction of the PSRO's is straightforward, and does not require a priori knowledge of the desired eigenstates. The PSRO, when applied to weylets, as well as to simple phase space Gaussian basis functions, exhibits remarkable improvements in accuracy, reducing computed eigenvalue errors by orders of magnitude. The method is applied to various model systems at varying DOF's.

In a series of earlier articles [B. Poirier J. Theor. Comput. Chem. 2, 65 (2003); B. Poirier and A. Salam J. Chem. Phys. 121, 1690 (2004); B. Poirier and A. Salam J. Chem. Phys. 121, 1740 (2004)], a new method was introduced for performing exact quantum dynamics calculations in a manner that formally defeats exponential scaling with system dimensionality. The method combines an optimally localized, orthogonal Weyl-Heisenberg wavelet basis set with a simple phase space truncation scheme, and has already been applied to model systems up to 17 degrees of freedom (DOF's). In this paper, the approach is applied for the first time to a real molecular system (neon dimer), necessitating the development of an efficient numerical scheme for representing arbitrary potential energy functions in the wavelet representation. All bound rovibrational energy levels of neon dimer are computed, using both one DOF radial coordinate calculations and a three DOF Cartesian coordinate calculation. Even at such low dimensionalities, the approach is found to be competitive with another state-of-the-art method applied to the same system [J. Montgomery and B. Poirier J. Chem. Phys. 119, 6609 (2003)].

A new parallel iterative algorithm for the diagonalization of real sparse symmetric matrices is introduced, which uses a modified subspace iteration method. A novel feature is the preprocessing of the matrix prior to iteration, which allows for a natural parallelization resulting in a great speedup and scalability of the method with respect to the number of compute nodes. The method is applied to Hamiltonian matrices of model systems up to six degrees of freedom, represented in a truncated Weyl–Heisenberg wavelet (or "weylet") basis developed by one of the authors (Poirier). It is shown to accurately determine many thousands of eigenvalues for sparse matrices of the order N ≈ 106, though much larger matrices may also be considered.

A means of evaluating the action of Hamiltonian operators on functions expanded in orthogonal compact support wavelet bases is developed, avoiding the direct construction and storage of operator matrices that complicate extension to coupled multidimensional quantum applications. Application of a potential energy operator is accomplished by simple multiplication of the two sets of expansion coefficients without any convolution. The errors of this coefficient product approximation are quantified and lead to use of particular generalized coiflet bases, derived here, that maximize the number of moment conditions satisfied by the scaling function. This is at the expense of the number of vanishing moments of the wavelet function (approximation order), which appears to be a disadvantage but is shown surmountable. In particular, application of the kinetic energy operator, which is accomplished through the use of one-dimensional (1D) [or at most two-dimensional (2D)] differentiation filters, then degrades in accuracy if the standard choice is made. However, it is determined that use of high-order finite-difference filters yields strongly reduced absolute errors. Eigensolvers that ordinarily use only matrix-vector multiplications, such as the Lanczos algorithm, can then be used with this more efficient procedure. Applications are made to anharmonic vibrational problems: a 1D Morse oscillator, a 2D model of proton transfer, and three-dimensional vibrations of nitrosyl chloride on a global potential energy surface.

An orthogonal wavelet basis is characterized by its approximation order, which relates to the ability of the basis to represent general smooth functions on a given scale. It is known, though perhaps not widely known, that there are ways of exceeding the approximation order, i.e., achieving higher-order error in the discretized wavelet transform and its inverse. The focus here is on the development of a practical formulation to accomplish this first for 1D smooth functions, then for 1D functions with discontinuities and then for multidimensional (here 2D) functions with discontinuities. It is shown how to transcend both the wavelet approximation order and the 2D Gibbs phenomenon in representing electromagnetic fields at discontinuous dielectric interfaces that do not simply follow the wavelet-basis grid.

No abstract