Computational Photophysics in the Presence of an Environment

Most processes triggered by ultraviolet (UV) or visible (vis) light in nature take place in complex biological environments. The first step in these photophysical events is the excitation of the absorbing system or chromophore to an electronically excited state. Such an excitation can be monitored by the UV-vis absorption spectrum. A precise calculation of the UV-vis spectrum of a chromophore embedded in an environment is a challenging task that requires the consideration of several ingredients, besides an accurate electronic-structure method for the excited states. Two of the most important are an appropriate description of the interactions between the chromophore and the environment and accounting for the vibrational motion of the whole system. In this contribution, we review the most common theoretical methodologies to describe the environment (including quantum mechanics/continuum and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics models) and to account for vibrational sampling (including Wigner sampling and molecular dynamics). Further, we illustrate in a series of examples how the lack of these ingredients can lead to a wrong interpretation of the electronic features behind the UV-vis absorption spectrum.