A quasiclassical trajectory study of energy transfer in benzene-benzene collisions A classical trajectory study of collisional energy transfer in thermal unimolecular reactions Quasiclassical trajectory calculations of the energy transfer of highly vibrationally excited benzene and hexafluorobenzene ͑HFB͒ molecules colliding with helium, argon and xenon have been performed. Deactivation is found to be more efficient for HFB in accord with experiment. This effect is due to the greater number of low frequency vibrational modes in HFB. A correlation between the energy transfer parameters and the properties of the intramolecular potential is found. For benzene and HFB, average energies transferred per collision in the given energy range increase with energy. Besides weak collisions, more efficient ''supercollisions'' are also observed for all substrate-bath gas pairs. The histograms for vibrational energy transfer can be fitted by biexponential transition probabilities. Rotational energy transfer reveals similar trends for benzene and HFB. Cooling of rotationally hot ensembles is very efficient for both molecules. During the deactivation, the initially thermal rotational distribution heats up more strongly for argon or xenon as a collider, than for helium, leading to a quasi-steady-state in rotational energy after only a few collisions.

Lead-free double perovskites have been proposed as promising nontoxic photovoltaic materials for the replacement of lead perovskites. While the latter ones reach remarkably high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) above 23% in small lab devices, the lead-free double perovskites so far have severely underperformed, with PCEs below 3% for the prototypical system Cs 2 AgBiBr 6 , in spite of considerable optimization efforts by several groups. Here, we present a detailed study of Cs 2 AgBiBr 6 thin films deposited on poly(methyl methacrylate) and mesoporous TiO 2 . Femtosecond UV−vis−NIR transient absorption experiments clearly identify the presence of excitons. In addition, strong electron−phonon coupling via Froḧlich interactions is observed in terms of pronounced coherent oscillation of a strong A 1g optical phonon mode of the double perovskite at 177 cm −1 . Similar behavior is also found for the related vacancy-ordered perovskite Cs 3 Bi 2 Br 9 and the parent compound BiBr 3 . Excitonic effects and electron−phonon coupling are known to induce unwanted electron−hole recombination and hamper carrier transport. New strategies will thus be required for efficient carrier extraction at the interfaces of the double perovskite with electron and hole transport layers.

The ultrafast excited-state dynamics of two carbonyl-containing carotenoids, 12'-apo-beta-caroten-12'-al and 8'-apo-beta-caroten-8'-al, have been investigated by transient absorption spectroscopy in a systematic variation of solvent polarity and temperature. In most of the experiments, 12'-apo-beta-caroten-12'-al was excited at 430 nm and 8'-apo-beta-caroten-8'-al at 445 or 450 nm via the S0 --> S2 (11Ag- --> 11Bu+) transition. The excited-state dynamics were then probed at 860 nm for 12'-apo-beta-caroten-12'-al and at 890 or 900 nm for 8'-apo-beta-caroten-8'-al. The temporal evolution of all transient signals measured in this work can be characterized by an ultrafast decay of the S2 --> SN absorption at early times followed by the formation of a stimulated emission (SE) signal, which subsequently decays on a much slower time scale. We assign the SE signal to a low-lying electronic state of the apocarotenals with intramolecular charge-transfer character (ICT --> S0). This is the first time that the involvement of an ICT state has been detected in the excited-state dynamics of a carbonyl carotenoid in nonpolar solvents such as n-hexane or i-octane. The amplitude ratio of ICT-stimulated emission to S2 absorption was weaker in nonpolar solvents than in polar solvents. We interpret the results in terms of a kinetic model, where the S1 and ICT states are populated from S2 through an ultrafast excited-state branching reaction (tau2 < 120 fs). Delayed formation of a part of the stimulated emission is due to the transition S1 --> ICT (tau3 = 0.5-4.1 ps, depending on the solvent), which possibly involves a slower backward reaction ICT --> S1. Determinations of tau1 were carried out for a large set of solvents. Especially in 12'-apo-beta-caroten-12'-al, the final SE decay, assigned to the nonradiative relaxation ICT --> S0, was strongly dependent on solvent polarity, varying from tau1 = 200 ps in n-hexane to 6.6 ps in methanol. In the case of 8'-apo-beta-caroten-8'-al, corresponding values were 24.8 and 7.6 ps, respectively. This indicates an increasing stabilization of the ICT state with increasing solvent polarity, resulting in a decreasing ICT-S0 energy gap. Tuning the pump wavelength from the blue wing to the maximum of the S0 --> S2 absorption band resulted in no change of tau1 in acetone and methanol. Additional measurements in methanol after excitation in the red edge of the S0 --> S2 band (480-525 nm) also show an almost constant tau1 with only a 10% reduction at the largest probe wavelengths. The temperature dependence of the tau1 value of 12'-apo-beta-caroten-12'-al was well described by Arrhenius-type behavior. The extracted apparent activation energies for the ICT --> S0 transitions were in general small (on the order of a few times RT), which is in the range expected for a radiationless process.

Complete and detailed experimental transition probability density functions P(E′,E) have been determined for the first time for collisions between a large, highly vibrationally excited molecule, toluene, and several bath gases. This was achieved by applying the method of kinetically controlled selective ionization (KCSI) (Paper I [J. Chem. Phys. 112, 4076 (2000), preceding article]). An optimum P(E′,E) representation is recommended (monoexponential with a parametric exponent in the argument) which uses only three parameters and features a smooth behavior of all parameters for the entire set of bath gases. In helium, argon, and CO2 the P(E′,E) show relatively increased amplitudes in the wings—large energy gaps |E′−E|—which can also be represented by a biexponential form. The fractional contribution of the second exponent in these biexponentials, which is directly related to the fraction of the so-called “supercollisions,” is found to be very small (&lt;0.1%). For larger colliders the second term disappears completely and the wings of P(E′,E) have an even smaller amplitude than that provided by a monoexponential form. At such low levels, the second exponent is therefore of practically no relevance for the overall energy relaxation rate. All optimized P(E′,E) representations show a marked linear energetic dependence of the (weak) collision parameter α1(E), which also results in an (approximately) linear dependence of 〈ΔE〉 and of the square root of 〈ΔE2〉. The energy transfer parameters presented in this study form a new benchmark class in certainty and accuracy, e.g., with only 2%–7% uncertainty for our 〈ΔE〉 data below 25 000 cm−1. They should also form a reliable testground for future trajectory calculations and theories describing collisional energy transfer of polyatomic molecules.