Description of electron transfer in the ground and excited states of organic donor-acceptor systems by single-reference and multi-reference density functional methods

Electron transfer in the ground and excited states of a model donor-acceptor (D-A) system is investigated using the single-reference and multi-reference density functional theory (DFT) methods. To analyze the results of the calculations, a simple two-site multi-reference model was derived that predicts a stepwise electron transfer in the S-0 state and a wave-like dependence of the S-1 electron transfer on the external stimulus. The standard single-reference Kohn-Sham (KS) DFT approach and the time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) method failed to describe the correct dependence of the S-0 and S-1 electron transfer on the external electric field applied along the donor-acceptor system. The multi-reference DFT approach, the spin-restricted ensemble-referenced KS (REKS) method, was able to successfully reproduce the correct behavior of the S-0 and S-1 electron transfer on the applied field. The REKS method was benchmarked against experimentally measured gas phase charge transfer excitations in a series of organic donor-acceptor complexes and displayed its ability to describe this type of electronic transitions with a very high accuracy, mean absolute error of 0.05 eV with the use of the standard range separated density functionals. On the basis of the calculations undertaken in this work, it is suggested that the non-adiabatic coupling between the S-0 and S-1 states may interfere with the electron transfer in a weakly coupled donor-acceptor system. It is also suggested that the electronic excitation of a D+-A(-) system may play a dual role by assisting the further electron transfer at certain magnitudes of the applied electric field and causing the backward transfer at lower electric field strengths. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.