Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2010

Abstract

We study the relative ability of several models of x-ray absorption spectra to capture the Franck–Condon structure apparent from an experiment on gaseous nitrogen. In doing so, we adopt the Born–Oppenheimer approximation and a constrained density functional theory method for computing the energies of the x-ray-excited molecule. Starting from an otherwise classical model for the spectrum, we systematically introduce more realistic physics, first by substituting the quantum mechanical nuclear radial density in the bond separation R for the classical radial density, then by adding the effect of zero-point energy and other level shifts, and finally by including explicit rovibrational quantization of both the ground and excited states. The quantization is determined exactly, using a discrete variable representation (DVR). We show that the near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectrum can be predicted semiquantitatively within this framework. We also address the possibility of non-trivial temperature dependence in the spectrum. By using constrained density functional theory in combination with more accurate potentials, we demonstrate that it is possible to improve the predicted spectrum. Ultimately, we establish the predictive limits of our method with respect to vibrational fine structure in NEXAFS spectra.

Comments

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in S. Fatehi et al., J. Chem. Phys. 132, 094302 (2010) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3324889.

Publication Title

The Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI

10.1063/1.3324889

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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