Exploring the effects of quantum decoherence on the excited-state dynamics of molecular systems

Fewest-switches surface hopping (FSSH) is employed in order to investigate the nonadiabatic excited-state dynamics of thiophene and related compounds and hence to establish a connection between the electronic system, the critical points in configuration space and the deactivation dynamics. The potential-energy surfaces of the studied molecules were calculated with complete active space self-consistent field and time-dependent density-functional theory. They are analyzed thoroughly to locate and optimize minimum-energy conical intersections, which are essential to the dynamics of the system. The influence of decoherence on the dynamics is examined by employing different decoherence schemes. We find that irrespective of the employed decoherence algorithm, the population dynamics of thiophene give results which are sound with the expectations grounded on the analysis of the potential-energy surface. A more detailed look at single trajectories as well as on the excited-state lifetimes, however, reveals a substantial dependence on how decoherence is accounted for. In order to connect these findings, we describe how ensemble averaging cures some of the overcoherence problems of uncorrected FSSH. Eventually, we identify carbon–sulfur bond cleavage as a common feature accompanying electronic transitions between different states in the simulations of all thiophene-related compounds studied in this work, which is of interest due to their relevance in organic photovoltaics.