Vibrational optical activity of chiral carbon nanoclusters treated by a generalized π-electron method

Cross sections of inelastic light scattering accompanied by vibronic excitation in large conjugated carbon structures is assessed at the π-electron level. Intensities of Raman and vibrational Raman optical activity (VROA) spectra of fullerenes are computed, relying on a single electron per atom. When considering only first neighbor terms in the Hamiltonian (a tight-binding (TB) type or Hückel-model), Raman intensities are captured remarkably well, based on comparison with frequency-dependent linear response of the self-consistent field (SCF) method. Resorting to π-electron levels when computing spectral intensities brings a beneficial reduction in computational cost as compared to linear response SCF. At difference with total intensities, the first neighbor TB model is found inadequate for giving the left and right circularly polarized components of the scattered light, especially when the molecular surface is highly curved. To step beyond first neighbor approximation, an effective π-electron Hamiltonian, including interaction of all sites is derived from the all-electron Fockian, in the spirit of the Bloch-equation. Chiroptical cross-sections computed by this novel π-electron method improve upon first-neighbor TB considerably, with no increase in computational cost. Computed VROA spectra of chiral fullerenes, such as C76 and C28, are reported for the first time, both by conventional linear response SCF and effective π-electron models.