Stairway to the conical intersection: a computational study of the retinal isomerization

The potential-energy surface of the first excited state of the 11-cis-retinal protonated Schiff base (PSB11) chromophore has been studied at the density functional theory (DFT) level using the time-dependent perturbation theory approach (TDDFT) in combination with Becke's three-parameter hybrid functional (B3LYP). The potential-energy curves for torsion motions around single and double bonds of the first excited state have also been studied at the coupled-cluster approximate singles and doubles (CC2) level. The corresponding potential-energy curves for the ground state have been calculated at the B3LYP DFT and second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) levels. The TDDFT study suggests that the electronic excitation initiates a turn of the beta-ionone ring around the C6-C7 bond. The torsion is propagating along the retinyl chain toward the cis to trans isomerization center at the C11=C12 double bond. The torsion twist of the C10-C11 single bond leads to a significant reduction in the deexcitation energy indicating that a conical intersection is being reached by an almost barrierless rotation around the C10-C11 single bond. The energy released when passing the conical intersection can assist the subsequent cis to trans isomerization of the C11=C12 double bond. The CC2 calculations also show that the torsion barrier for the twist of the retinyl C10-C11 single bond adjacent to the isomerization center almost vanishes for the excited state. Because of the reduced torsion barriers of the single bonds, the retinyl chain can easily deform in the excited state. Thus, the CC2 and TDDFT calculations suggest similar reaction pathways on the potential-energy surface of the excited state leading toward the conical intersection and resulting in a cis to trans isomerization of the retinal chromophore. According to the CC2 calculations the cis to trans isomerization mechanism does not involve any significant torsion motion of the beta-ionone ring.