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SPECTROSCOPY: PROBING MOLECULES WITH LIGHT
In practice, even for systems that are very complex and poorly
characterized, we would like to be able to probe molecules and find out as
much about the system as we can so that we can understand reactivity,
structure, bonding, etc. One of the most powerful tools for interrogating
molecules is spectroscopy. Here, we tickle the system with electromagnetic
radiation (i.e. light) and see how the molecules respond. The motivation for
this is that different molecules respond to light in different ways. Thus, if
we are creative in the ways that we probe the system with light, we can hope
to find a unique spectral fingerprint that will differentiate one molecule
from all other possibilities. Thus, in order to understand how spectroscopy
works, we need to answer the question: how do electromagnetic waves
interact with matter?
The Dipole Approximation
An electromagnetic wave of wavelength λ, produces an electric field, E(r, t ) ,
and a magnetic field, B(r, t ) , of the form:
E(r, t )=E 0
cos( k·r – ωt) B(r, t )=B 0
cos( k·r – ωt)
Where ω=2πν is the angular frequency of the wave, the wavevector k has a
magnitude 2π/λ and k (the direction the wave propagates) is perpendicular to
E
0
and B 0
. Further, the electric and magnetic fields are related:
E
0
· B
0
=0 |E
0
|= c |B 0
Thus, the electric and magnetic
fields are orthogonal and the
magnetic field is a factor of c (the
speed of light, which is 1/137 in
atomic units) smaller than the
electric field. Thus we obtain a
picture like the one at right, where
the electric and magnetic fields
oscillate transverse to the
direction of propagation.
Now, in chemistry we typically deal with the part of the spectrum from
ultraviolet ( λ≈ 100 nm ) to radio waves ( λ≈ 10 m )
1
. Meanwhile, a typical molecule
There are a few examples of spectroscopic measurements in the X Ray region. In these
cases, the wavelength can be very small and the dipole approximation is not valid.
http://www.monos.leidenuniv.nl
1
is about 1 nm in size. Let us assume that the molecule is sitting at the origin.
Then, in the 1 nm
3
volume occupied by the molecule we have:
k·r ≈ |k| |r| ≈ 2p/(100 nm) 1 nm =.
Where we have assumed UV radiation (longer wavelengths would lead to even
smaller values for k·r ). Thus, k·r is a small number and we can expand the
electric and magnetic fields in a power series in k·r :
E(r, t ) ≈ E 0
[ cos( k·0 - ωt)+O( k·r) ]≈ E 0
cos(ωt)
B(r, t ) ≈ B
0
[ cos( k·0 - ωt)+O( k·r) ]≈ B
0
cos(ωt)
Where we are neglecting terms of order at most a few percent. Thus, in
most chemical situations, we can think of light as applying two time
dependent fields: an oscillating, uniform electric field (top) and a
uniform, oscillating magnetic field (bottom). This approximation is called
the Dipole approximation – specifically when applied to the electric
(magnetic) field it is called the electric (magnetic) dipole approximation. If
we were to retain the next term in the expansion, we would have what is
called the quadrupole approximation. The only time it is advisable to go to
higher orders in the expansion is if the dipole contribution is exactly zero as
happens, for example, due to symmetry in some cases. In this situation, even
though the quadrupole contributions may be small, they are certainly large
compared to zero and would need to be computed.
The Interaction Hamiltonian
How do these oscillating electric and magnetic fields couple to the molecule?
Well, for a system interacting with a uniform electric field E( t ) the
interaction energy is
H i
E
(
t )
= −μμμμi E (
t )
= − e r E (
t )
where μμμμ is the electric dipole moment of the system. Thus, uniform electric
fields interact with molecular dipole moments.
Similarly, the magnetic field couples to the magnetic dipole moment, m.
Magnetic moments arise from circulating currents and are therefore
proportional to angular momentum – larger angular momentum means higher
circulating currents and larger magnetic moments. If we assume that all the
angular momentum in our system comes from the intrinsic spin angular
momentum , I=( I x
, I
y
, I
z
) , then the magnetic moment is strictly proportional to
I. For example, for a particle with charge q and mass m then
q g
H
B
( )
t = − m B
i ( )
t = − I B ( )
i t
2 m
To work out these rates, we first work out the time dependence of some
arbitrary state, ψ( t ). We can expand ψ( t ) as a linear combination of the
eigenstates:
ψ (
t )
∑
c (
t )
φ (
t )
n n
n
where c n
(t) are the coefficients to be determined. Next, we plug this into
the TDSE:
i �ψ
(
t )
= H
ψ (
t )
⇒ i �
∑
c
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t = H
∑
c
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t
∂ t
n n
⇒ i �
∑
c �
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t + c
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t =
∑
c
n
( )
t
(
H
0
+ H
1
( )
t
)
n
( )
t
n n
⇒ i �
∑
c
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t −
iE
n
c
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t =
∑
c
n
( )
t (
E
n
+ H
1
( )
t )
n
( )
t
n
n
⇒ i �
∑
c �
n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t +
n
n
E c
∑ n
( )
t φ
n
( )
t =
∑
c
n
( )
t
(
E
n
+ H
1
( )
t
)
(
t )
n
n n
⇒ i �
∑
c �
( )
t φ
( )
t =
∑
c
( )
t H
( )
t φ
n
( )
t
n n n 1
n n
Next, we multiply both sides by the final state we are interested in ( φ f
then integrate over all space. On the left hand side, we get:
i �
∫
f
(
t )
∑
c �
n
(
t )
n
(
t )
d τ = i �
∑
c �
n
(
t )
∫
n
(
t )
d τ = i � c �
f
(
t )
n n
δ
nf
Meanwhile, on the right we get:
t t H
φ t c φ t t d τ
∫
f
( )
∑
c
n
( )
1
(
t )
n
( )
d τ =
∑ n
(
t )
∫
f
( )
H
1
( )
n
(
t )
n n
Combining terms gives:
⇒ i � c �
(
t
)
=
∑
∫
φ
(
t
)
H
ˆ
(
t
)
φ
(
t
)
d τ c
(
t
)
Eq. 1 f f 1 n n
n
Up to this point, we haven’t used the form of H 1
at all. We note that we can
re write the light matter interaction as:
H
1
(
t )
= V
cos (
ω t
)
where, for electric fields V
i
0
and for magnetic fields
q g
≡ − e r E V I B i.
2 m
In either case, we can re write the cosine in terms of complex exponentials:
( )
f
φ t φ
H
t
= V
e
i ω t
− i ω t
1 2
Plugging this into Eq.1 above gives:
i � c
f
t
φ
f
t
1
2
V
e
i ω t
+ e
− i ω t
φ
n
t
d τ c
n
t
n
φ
f
0 e
iE t /�
2
V
e
i ω t
+ e
− i ω t
e
− iE t /�
φ
n
0 d τ c
n
t
f 1 n
n
φ
1
2
V
φ
0 d τ
e
(
n
− E
f
−� ω ) / �
+ e
− i E
n
− E
f
+� ω ) /
c
t
− i E t ( t �
f n n
n
2
V
fn
e
( − E −� ω ) / �
+ e
− i E − E +� ω ) /
c
n
t
− i E t ( t �
1 n f n f
n
Tickling the Molecule With Light
To this point we haven’t made any approximations to the time evolution. We
now make some assumptions that allow us to focus on one particular i→f
transition. We make two physical assumptions:
1) The molecule starts in a particular eigenstate, φ
i
, at t =0. This sets
the initial conditions for our coefficients: only the coefficient of
state i can be non zero initially:
c
= 0 if n ≠ i c
n i
It is easy to verify that this choice gives the desired initial state:
c
= 0 + 0 + ...1i φ
n n i i
n
- The interaction only has a small effect on the dynamics. This is
certainly an approximation, and it will not always be true. We can
certainly guarantee its validity in one limit: if we reduce the
intensity of our light source sufficiently, we will reduce the
strength of the electric and magnetic fields to the point where the
influence of the light is small. As we turn up the intensity, there
may be additional effects that will come into play, and we will come
back to this possibility later on. However, if we take this
assumption at face value, we can assume on the right hand side
2
2
T
2
V
fi
e
( − E −� ω ) / �
+ e
− i E − E +� ω ) /
dt
− i E
i f
t (
i f
t �
P T = c T
f
f
0
Fermi’s Golden Rule
Now, usually our experiments take a long time from the point of view of
electromagnetic waves. In a single second a light wave will oscillate billions
of times. Thus, our observations are likely to correspond to the long time
limit of the above expression:
2
2
T
V
fi
T →∞
e
(
i
− E
f
−� ω ) / �
+ e
− i E
i
− E
f
+� ω ) /
dt
− i E t ( t �
P = lim
f 2
0
and in fact, we are usually not interested in probabilities, but rates, which
are probabilities per unit time:
2
2
T
V
W
fi
fi
2
e
(
i
− E
f
−� ω ) / �
+ e
− i E
i
− E
f
+� ω ) /
dt
− i E t ( t �
lim
T →∞
T
0
This integral looks very difficult. However, it is easy to work out with
pictures because it is almost always zero. Note that both the real and
imaginary parts of the integrand oscillate. Thus, we will be computing the
integral of something that looks like:
Thus, as long as the integrand oscillates, the positive regions will cancel out
the negative ones and the integral will be zero. There only two situations
where the integrand is not oscillatory: E
i
− E
f
− � ω = 0 (in which case the
first term is unity) and E
i
− E
f
+ � ω = 0 (in which case the second term is
unity). We can therefore write
2
V
W
fi
fi
2
δ
E
i
− E
f
E
i
− E
f
where δ(x) is a function that is defined to be non zero only when x=0. This
result is called Fermi’s golden rule. It gives us a way of predicting the rate
of any i→f transition in any molecule induced by an electromagnetic field of
arbitrary frequency coming from any direction. This formula – as well as
generalizations that relax the electric dipole and linear response
approximations – is probably the single most important relationship in terms
of how chemists think about spectroscopy, and so we will dwell a bit on the
interpretation of the various terms.
On the one hand, the probability of an i→f transition is proportional to
2
2
V =
∫
f
V
i
d τ
fi
Thus, if the matrix element of the interaction operator V
between the
initial and final states is zero, then the transition never happens. This is
called a selection rule, and a transition that does not occur because of a
selection rule is said to be forbidden. For example, in the case of the
electric field,
2 2 2 2
V =
∫
φ
f
i E
0
φ
i
d τ = E
0
i
∫
φ
f
φ
i
d τ = E
0
iμμμμ
fi fi
Thus, for molecules interacting with electric fields, the transition i→f is
forbidden unless the matrix element of the dipole operator between i&f is
nonzero. Meanwhile, in the case of a magnetic field,
2 2
2 2
q g q g
V =
∫
φ
f
m B i
0
φ
i
d τ = B
0
i
∫
φ
f
I
φ
i
d τ = B i I
fi 0 fi
2 m 2 m
Thus, a magnetic field can only induce an i→f transition if the matrix
element of one of the spin angular momentum operators is non zero between
the initial and final states. Selection rules of this type are extremely
important in determining which transitions will and will not appear in our
spectra.
E
f
E
i
The second thing we note about Fermi’s
Golden Rule is that it enforces energy
conservation. We note that the energy
carried by a photon is � ω. The δ function
portion is only non zero if E
f
− E
i
E
f
E
i
(second term) or E
i
− E
f
= � ω (first
term). Thus, the transition only occurs
E
f
− E
i
= � ω
E
f
− E
i
= −� ω
if the energy difference between the
two states exactly matches the energy
of the photon we are sending in. This is depicted in the picture at right.
