title: Vibrational coupling in carboxylic acid dimers.
abstract: The vibrational level splitting in the ground electronic state of carboxylic acid dimers mediated by the doubly hydrogen-bonded networks are investigated using pure and mixed dimers of benzoic acid with formic acid as molecular prototypes. Within the 0-2000-cm(-1) range, the frequencies for the fundamental and combination vibrations of the two dimers are experimentally measured by using dispersed fluorescence spectroscopy in a supersonic jet expansion. Density-functional-theory calculations predict that most of the dimer vibrations are essentially in-phase and out-of-phase combinations of the monomer modes, and many of such combinations show significantly large splitting in vibrational frequencies. The infrared spectrum of the jet-cooled benzoic acid dimer, reported recently by Bakker et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 119, 11180 (2003)], has been used along with the dispersed fluorescence spectra to analyze the coupled g-u vibrational levels. Assignments of the dispersed fluorescence spectra of the mixed dimer are suggested by comparing the vibronic features with those in the homodimer spectrum and the predictions of density-functional-theory calculation. The fluorescence spectra measured by excitations of the low-lying single vibronic levels of the mixed dimer reveal that the hydrogen-bond vibrations are extensively mixed with the ring modes in the S1 surface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur UP 208016, India.
authors.forename: Chayan K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Nandi
authors.forename: Montu K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Hazra
authors.forename: Tapas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chakraborty