Rethinking Vibrational Stark Spectroscopy: Peak Shifts, Line Widths, and the Role of Non-Stark Solvent Coupling

A vibration's transition frequency is partly determined by the first-order Stark effect, which accounts for the electric field experienced by the mode. Using ultrafast infrared pump-probe and FT-IR spectroscopies, we characterized both the 0-* 1 and 1-* 2 vibrational transitions' field-dependent peak positions and line widths of the CN stretching mode of benzonitrile (BZN) and phenyl selenocyanate (PhSeCN) in ten solvents. We present a theoretical model that decomposes the observed line width into a field-dependent Stark contribution and a field-independent non-Stark solvent coupling contribution (NSC). The model demonstrates that the field dependent peak position is independent of the line width, even when the NSC dominates the latter. Experiments show that when the Stark tuning rate is large compared to the NSC (PhSeCN), the line width has a field dependence, albeit with major NSC-induced excursions from linearity. When the Stark tuning rate is small relative to the NSC (BZN), the line width is field-independent. BZN's line widths are substantially larger for the 1-* 2 transition, indicating a 1-* 2 transition enhancement of the NSC. Additionally, we examine, theoretically and experimentally, the difference in the 0-* 1 and 1-* 2 transitions' Stark tuning rates. Second-order perturbation theory combined with density functional theory explain the difference and show that the 1-* 2 transition's Stark tuning rate is similar to 10% larger. The Stark tuning rate of PhSeCN is larger than BZN's for both transitions, consistent with the theoretical calculations. This study provides new insights into vibrational line shape components and a more general understanding of the vibrational response to external electric fields.

Automated summary

This study investigates the vibrational transitions of benzonitrile and phenyl selenocyanate in different solvents using ultrafast spectroscopies. The first-order Stark effect is found to determine the vibration's transition frequency, while the line width is influenced by the solvent coupling contribution. Moreover, the difference in the Stark tuning rates of 0-* 1 and 1-* 2 transitions is examined theoretically and experimentally.