Prediction Challenge

Using a multistate mapping approach to surface hopping to predict the ultrafast electron diffraction signal of gas-phase cyclobutanone

Lewis Hutton, Andrés Moreno Carrascosa, Andrew W. Prentice, Mats Simmermacher, Johan E. Runeson, Martin J. Paterson and Adam Kirrander
Publication , Prediction challenge

Using the recently developed multistate mapping approach to surface hopping (multistate MASH) method combined with SA(3)- CASSCF(12,12)/aug-cc-pVDZ electronic structure calculations, the gas-phase isotropic ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) of cyclobutanone is predicted and analyzed…

Prediction Through Quantum Dynamics Simulations: Photo-excited Cyclobutanone

Quantum dynamics simulations are becoming a standard tool for simulating photo-excited molecular systems involving a manifold of coupled states, known as non-adiabatic dynamics. While these simulations have had many successes in explaining experiments and giving details of non-adiabatic transitions, the question remains as to their predictive power…

Ultrafast electron diffraction of photoexcited gas-phase cyclobutanone predicted by ab initio multiple cloning simulations

We present the result of our calculations of ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) for cyclobutanone excited into the S2 electronic state, which is based on the non-adiabatic dynamics simulations with the Ab Initio Multiple Cloning (AIMC) method with the electronic structure calculated at the SA(3)-CASSCF(12,12)/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory…

The Photochemistry of Rydberg-Excited Cyclobutanone: Photoinduced Processes and Ground State Dynamics

Owing to ring-strain, cyclic ketones exhibit complex excited-state dynamics with multiple competing photochemical channels active on the ultrafast timescale. While the excitedstate dynamics of cyclobutanone after π ∗ ← n excitation into the lowest-energy excited singlet state (S1) has been extensively studied, the dynamics following 3s ← n excitation into the higher-lying singlet Rydberg (S2) state are less well understood…

Predicting the photodynamics of cyclobutanone triggered by a laser pulse at 200 nm and its MeV-UED signals—A trajectory surface hopping and XMS-CASPT2 perspective

This work is part of a prediction challenge that invited theoretical/computational chemists to predict the photochemistry of cyclobutanone in the gas phase, excited at 200 nm by a laser pulse, and the expected signal that will be recorded during a time-resolved megaelectronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction (MeV-UED). We present here our theoretical predictions…