The electronic structure and size scaling of spectroscopic observables in conjugated polymers are investigated using time-dependent density functional theory. We show that local density approximations and gradientcorrected functionals do not have an effective attractive Coulomb interaction between photoexcited electronhole pairs to form bound states and therefore do not reproduce finite exciton sizes. Long-range nonlocal and nonadiabatic density functional corrections ͑such as hybrid mixing with an exact Hartree-Fock exchange͒ are necessary to capture correct delocalization of photoexcitations in one-dimensional polymeric chains.

It has recently been shown [S. J. Cotton and W. H. Miller, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 234112 (2013)] that a symmetrical windowing quasi-classical (SQC) approach [S. J. Cotton and W. H. Miller, J. Phys. Chem. A 117, 7190 (2013)] applied to the Meyer-Miller model [H.-D. Meyer and W. H. Miller, J. Chem. Phys. 70, 3214 (1979)] for the electronic degrees of freedom in electronically non-adiabatic dynamics is capable of quantitatively reproducing quantum mechanical results for a variety of test applications, including cases where "quantum" coherence effects are significant. Here we apply this same SQC methodology, within a flux-side correlation function framework, to calculate thermal rate constants corresponding to several proposed models of electron transfer processes [P. Huo, T. F. Miller III, and D. F. Coker, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 151103 (2013); A. R. Menzeleev, N. Ananth, and T. F. Miller III, J. Chem. Phys. 135, 074106 (2011)]. Good quantitative agreement with Marcus Theory is obtained over several orders of magnitude variation in non-adiabatic coupling. Moreover, the "inverted regime" in thermal rate constants (with increasing bias) known from Marcus Theory is also reproduced with good accuracy by this very simple classical approach. The SQC treatment is also applied to a recent model of photoinduced proton coupled electron transfer [C. Venkataraman, A. V. Soudackov, and S. Hammes-Schiffer, J. Chem. Phys. 131, 154502 (2009)] and population decay of the photoexcited donor state is found to be in reasonable agreement with results calculated via reduced density matrix theory.

Excited state properties of one-dimensional molecular materials are dominated by many-body interactions resulting in strongly bound confined excitons. These effects cannot be neglected or treated as a small perturbation and should be appropriately accounted for by electronic structure methodologies. We use adiabatic time-dependent density functional theory to investigate the electronic structure of one-dimensional organic semiconductors, conjugated polymers. Various commonly used functionals are applied to calculate the lowest singlet and triplet state energies and oscillator strengths of the poly(phenylenevinylene) and ladder-type (poly)(para-phenylene) oligomers. Local density approximations and gradient-corrected functionals cannot describe bound excitonic states due to lack of an effective attractive Coulomb interaction between photoexcited electrons and holes. In contrast, hybrid density functionals, which include long-range nonlocal and nonadiabatic corrections in a form of a fraction of Hartree-Fock exchange, are able to reproduce the excitonic effects. The resulting finite exciton sizes are strongly dependent on the amount of the orbital exchange included in the functional.

In classical mechanics, discrete breathers (DBs) - a spatial time-periodic localization of energy - are predicted in a large variety of nonlinear systems. Motivated by a conceptual bridging of the DB phenomena in classical and quantum mechanical representations, we study their signatures in the dynamics of a quantum equivalent of a classical mechanical point in phase space - a coherent state. In contrast to the classical point that exhibits either delocalized or localized motion, the coherent state shows signatures of both localized and delocalized behavior. The transition from normal to local modes have different characteristics in quantum and classical perspectives. Here, we get an insight into the connection between classical and quantum perspectives by analyzing the decomposition of the coherent state into system's eigenstates, and analyzing the spacial distribution of the wave-function density within these eigenstates. We find that the delocalized and localized eigenvalue components of the coherent state are separated by a mixed region, where both kinds of behavior can be observed. Further analysis leads to the following observations. Considered as a function of coupling, energy eigenstates go through avoided crossings between tunneling and non-tunneling modes. The dominance of tunneling modes in the high nonlinearity region is compromised by the appearance of new types of modes - high order tunneling modes - that are similar to the tunneling modes but have attributes of non-tunneling modes. Certain types of excitations preferentially excite higher order tunneling modes, allowing one to study their properties. Since auto-correlation functions decrease quickly in highly nonlinear systems, short-time dynamics are sufficient for modeling quantum DBs. This work provides a foundation for implementing modern semi-classical methods to model quantum DBs, bridging classical and quantum mechanical signatures of DBs, and understanding spectroscopic experiments that involve a coherent state.

We study the localization of energy in a nonlinear coupled system, exhibiting so-called breather modes, using quantized Hamilton dynamics (QHD). Already at the lowest order, which is only twice as complex as classical mechanics, this simple semiclassical method incorporates quantum-mechanical effects. The transition between the localized and delocalized regimes is instantaneous in classical mechanics, while it is gradual due to tunneling in both quantum mechanics and QHD. In contrast to classical mechanics, which predicts an abrupt appearance of breathers, quantum mechanics and QHD show an alternation of localized and delocalized behavior in the transient region. QHD includes zero-point energy that is reflected in a shifted energy asymptote for the localized states, providing another improvement on the classical perspective. By detailed analysis of the distribution and transfer of energy within classical mechanics, QHD, and quantum dynamics, we conclude that QHD is an efficient approach that accounts for moderate quantum effects and can be used to identify quantum breathers in large nonlinear systems.