We present a rare event sampling scheme applicable to
coupled electronic
excited states. In particular, we extend the forward flux sampling
(FFS) method for rare event sampling to a nonadiabatic version (NAFFS)
that uses the trajectory surface hopping (TSH) method for nonadiabatic
dynamics. NAFFS is applied to two dynamically relevant excited-state
models that feature an avoided crossing and a conical intersection
with tunable parameters. We investigate how nonadiabatic couplings,
temperature, and reaction barriers affect transition rate constants
in regimes that cannot be otherwise obtained with plain, traditional
TSH. The comparison with reference brute-force TSH simulations for
limiting cases of rareness shows that NAFFS can be several orders
of magnitude cheaper than conventional TSH and thus represents a conceptually
novel tool to extend excited-state dynamics to time scales that are
able to capture rare nonadiabatic events.