Chemical Modification of Conical Intersections in Photoisomerization Dynamics of Butadiene Derivatives.

Guided by a notion of symmetry-breaking modulation or control of the so-called symmetry-allowed conical intersection by shining laser pulses [ Arasaki , Y. ; et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2010 , 12 , 1239 ], we here explore a possibility of the modulation of the symmetry-allowed conical intersection by chemical substitution with functional groups. As a first case study, we choose photoisomerization dynamics of s-trans-1,3-butadiene H2C═CH-CH═CH2 with one of the terminal hydrogen atoms being replaced by -CF3. The target here is not the control of the rate of nonadiabatic transition but to know which one of the double bonds is more frequently isomerized in the radiationless quenching process on the way back to the ground state. We analyze when and how the symmetry is broken by tracking ab initio molecular dynamics paths, the mean-field paths with use of the nonadiabatic electron wavepacket dynamics, and the associated branching paths.