news & views librational modes) and thus changing how the sub-surface vibration couples with the surroundings. Common methods of optimizing the water-photolysis reaction conditions involve altering both the underlying semiconductor (through doping) and the electrolyte composition. This new vibrational mode could help to better understand the process on the molecular level, rather than relying o...

The theory and first implementation of a vibrational coupled cluster (VCC) method for calculations of the vibrational structure of molecules is presented. Different methods for introducing approximate VCC methods are discussed including truncation according to a maximum number of simultaneous mode excitations as well as an interaction space order concept is introduced. The theory is tested on c...

We demonstrate a correlation between how an IR-active vibrational mode responds to temperature changes and how it responds to crystallinity differences. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy was used to track changes in carbonate-related vibrational modes in three different CaCO3 polymorphs (calcite, aragonite, and vaterite) and CaMg(CO3)2 (dolomite) during heating. Of the three characteristic IR-active c...

We combine deuterium labeling, density functional theory calculations, and experimental vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy into a form of "counterfactual-enabled molecular spectroscopy" for producing reliable vibrational mode assignments in situations where local group mode approximations are insufficient for spectral interpretation and vibrational mode assignments. We demonstrat...

The interaction between localized and extended vibrational modes in solids is of central importance in understanding how local vibrational modes decay into phonons. Interstitial oxygen (O(i)) in silicon is a model system for studying such interactions. Using hydrostatic pressure, we have brought the antisymmetric stretch mode of (18)O(i) in silicon into resonance with the second harmonic of the...

Thermodynamic properties of selected small and medium size molecules were calculated using harmonic and anharmonic vibrational frequencies. Harmonic vibrational frequencies were obtained by normal mode analysis, whereas anharmonic ones were calculated using the vibrational self-consistent field (VSCF) method. The calculated and available experimental thermodynamic data for zero point energy, en...

The vibrationally autoionizing Rydberg states of small polyatomic molecules provide a fascinating laboratory in which to study fundamental nonadiabatic processes. In this review, recent results on the vibrational mode dependence of vibrational autoionization are discussed. In general, autoionization rates depend strongly on the character of the normal mode driving the process and on the electro...

Vibrational energy transfer of the amide I mode of N-methylacetamide (NMA) is studied theoretically using the vibrational configuration interaction method. A quartic force field of NMA is constructed at the B3LYP/6-31G+(d) level of theory and its accuracy is checked by comparing the resulting anharmonic frequencies with available theoretical and experimental values. Quantum dynamics calculation...