Time-dependent density functional theory study on direction-dependent electron and hole transfer processes in molecular systems

We report on real-time time-dependent density functional theory calculations on direction-dependent electron and hole transfer processes in molecular systems. As a model system, we focus on α-sulfur. It is shown that time scale of the electron transfer process from a negatively charged S₈ molecule to a neighboring neutral monomer is comparable to that of a strong infrared-active molecular vibrations of the dimer with one negatively charged monomer. This results in a strong coupling between the electrons and the nuclei motion which eventually leads to S₈ ring opening before the electron transfer process is completed. The open-ring structure is found to be stable. The similar infrared-active peak in the case of hole transfer, however, is shown to be very weak and hence no significant scattering by the nuclei is possible. The presented approach to study the charge transfer processes in sulfur has direct applications in the increasingly growing research field of charge transport in molecular systems. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.