Pulse-induced nonequilibrium dynamics of acetylene inside carbon nanotube studied by an ab initio approach
Nanoscale molecular confinement substantially modifies the functionality and electronic properties of encapsulated molecules. Many works have approached this problem from the perspective of quantifying ground-state molecular changes, but little is known about the nonequilibrium dynamics of encapsula...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2012 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/95420 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/95420 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Time-dependent density-functional theory Nanoscale confinement Femtosecond laser |
| Sumario: | Nanoscale molecular confinement substantially modifies the functionality and electronic properties of encapsulated molecules. Many works have approached this problem from the perspective of quantifying ground-state molecular changes, but little is known about the nonequilibrium dynamics of encapsulated molecular system. In this letter, we report an analysis of the nonequilibrium dynamics of acetylene (C2H2) inside a semiconducting carbon nanotube (CNT). An ultrashort high-intense laser pulse (2 fs width and 1015 W/cm2 intensity) brings the systems out of equilibrium. This process is modeled by comprehensive first-principles time-dependent density-functional simulations. When encapsulated, acetylene dimer, unlike a single acetylene molecule, exhibits correlated vibrational dynamics (C–C bond rotation and H–C–C bending) that is markedly different from the dynamics observed in the gas phase. This result highlights the role of CNT in modulating the optical electric field within the tube. At longer simulation timescales (> 20 fs) in the largest-diameter tube studied here [CNT(14,0)], we observe synchronized rotation about the C–C axes in the dimer and ultimately ejection of one of the four hydrogen atoms. Our results illustrate the richness of photochemical phenomena in confined geometries. |
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