Triply twisted Möbius annulene: a new class of two-photon active material – a computational study

Abstract

In the present work, we have studied the gas phase one- and two-photon absorption (OPA and TPA) properties of the first two excited states of the triply twisted Möbius annulene molecule (G. R. Schaller, et al., Nat. Chem. 2014, 6, 608) and five model systems substituted with different donor and acceptor groups. The main purpose of this study is to explore the OPA and TPA properties of this newly synthesized molecule and the unique π-conjugation provided by it. We have used the linear and quadratic response theory methods with the CAMB3LYP functional and the cc-pVDZ basis set for calculating the required parameters. Our results indicate that in the absence of any directive force (i.e. the donor–acceptor groups) the unsubstituted molecule is completely TP inactive. However, as soon as we insert the donor–acceptor group the system becomes TP active which can further be enhanced (up to 3640 GM in our case) by changing the donor–acceptor groups. We have explained the results by performing a two-state model calculation and by analyzing the TP tensor elements and the orbitals involved in the transition processes.