Simulation of Singlet Exciton Diffusion in Bulk Organic Materials

We present a scheme for nonadiabatic direct dynamics simulation of Frenkel exciton diffusion in bulk molecular systems. The fluctuations of exciton couplings caused by the molecular motion can crucially influence exciton transport in such materials. This effect can be conveniently taken into account by computing the exciton couplings along molecular:dynamics trajectories, as shown recently. In this work, we combine Molecular Dynamics simulations with a Frenkel Hamiltonian into a combined quantum-mechanical/molecular mechanics approach in order to allow for a simultaneous propagation of nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom using nonadiabatic dynamics propagation schemes. To reach the necessary time and length scales, we use classical force-fields and the semiempirical time-dependent-density functional, tight-binding, method in combination-with a fragmentation of the electronic structure. Fewest-switches surface-hopping, with adaptions to handle trivial crossings; and the Boltzmann-corrected Ehrenfest method are used to follow the excitonic quantum-dynamics according to the classical evolution of the nuclei. As an application, we present the simulation of singlet exciton diffusion in crystalline anthracene, which allows us to address strengths and shortcomings of the presented methodology in detail