Linear response in theory of electron transfer reactions as an alternative to the molecular harmonic oscillator model

The effect of solvent fluctuations on the rate of electron transfer reactions is considered using linear response theory and a second-order cumulant expansion. An expression is obtained for the rate constant in terms of the dielectric response function of the solvent. It is shown thereby that this expression, which is usually derived using a molecular harmonic oscillator ("spin-boson") model, is valid not only for approximately harmonic systems such as solids but also for strongly molecularly anharmonic systems such as polar solvents. The derivation is a relatively simple alternative to one based on quantum field theoretic techniques. The effect of system inhomogeneity due to the presence of the solute molecule is also now included. An expression is given generalizing to frequency space and quantum mechanically the analogue of an electrostatic result relating the reorganization free energy to the free energy difference of two hypothetical systems [J. Chem. Phys. 39, 1734 (1963)]. The latter expression has been useful in adapting specific electrostatic models in the literature to electron transfer problems, and the present extension can be expected to have a similar utility

Dynamic Stokes shift in solution: Effect of finite pump pulse duration

The time-evolution of the fluorescence spectrum of a dissolved chromophore excited by an ultrafast pump pulse is considered. The average value of the energy difference of the solute in its excited and ground states is used to describe the relaxation of the maximum of the transient fluorescence spectrum to its equilibrium value (dynamic Stokes shift, DSS). A simple formula for the normalized DSS is obtained which generalizes an earlier standard classical expression and includes the effect of a pump pulse of finite duration. As an example, dielectric dispersion data are used for a dipolar solute in water to estimate the quantum correction to the standard DSS expression. The correction is negligible when the frequency of the pump pulse is close to the maximum in the absorption spectrum, but a deviation from the standard formula can be expected for the pump pulse tuned to a far wing of the absorption band of the chromophore. An expression is given for this deviation

Possible mechanism of OH frequency shift dynamics in water

The results of the recent infrared pump−probe experiment are analyzed, in which the time evolution of the spectrum of the OH-stretching vibration excited by an ultrashort laser pulse in the dilute solution HDO/D_2O was measured. To interpret the results of the experiment, a formalism developed earlier for a different application, optical transitions of the chromophoric molecules in polar solvent, is used. A mechanism of the IR shift dynamics in water is suggested, involving α-relaxation (structural relaxation), which may also be related to the dielectric behavior of water. A suggestion is made for computer simulations as well as for an experimental test of the proposed mechanism