All mode dynamics at the conical intersection of an octa-atomic molecule: Multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) investigation on the butatriene cation

Abstract

The ground state and the first excited electronic states of the octa-atomic butatriene cation (C4H4+) exhibit a multidimensional conical intersection. This intersection is energetically low lying and is located in the vicinity of the Franck–Condon region of the neutral molecule’s ground state. The conical intersection thus dominates the nuclear dynamics in ionization processes of this molecule. This is a particularly interesting example of vibronic coupling, introducing what appears to be a new, structured band into the energy spectrum. In this work, the potential energy surfaces and their intersection are investigated by ab initio methods. A diabatic model Hamiltonian including all possible linear, quadratic and bilinear vibronic coupling terms is introduced, with coupling constants determined by a fit to the ab initio data. The nuclear dynamics of all 18 vibrational modes is then evaluated by propagating the wave packet using the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method. Finally, the photoelectron spectrum of butatriene is computed and compared with the experimental one.