Intermolecular coulomb couplings from ab initio electrostatic potentials: application to optical transitions of strongly coupled pigments in photosynthetic antennae and reaction centers

An accurate and numerically efficient method for the calculation of intermolecular Coulomb couplings between charge densities of electronic states and between transition densities of electronic excitations is presented. The coupling of transition densities yields the F?rster type excitation energy transfer coupling, and from the charge density coupling, a shift in molecular excitation energies results. Starting from an ab initio calculation of the charge and transition densities, atomic partial charges are determined such as to fit the resulting electrostatic potentials of the different states and the transition. The different intermolecular couplings are then obtained from the Coulomb couplings between the respective atomic partial charges. The excitation energy transfer couplings obtained in the present TrEsp (transition charge from electrostatic potential) method are compared with couplings obtained from the simple point-dipole and extended dipole approximations and with those from the ab initio transition density cube method of Krüger, Scholes, and Fleming. The present method is of the same accuracy as the latter but computationally more efficient. The method is applied to study strongly coupled pigments in the light-harvesting complexes of green sulfur bacteria (FMO), purple bacteria (LH2), and higher plants (LHC-II) and the "special pairs" of bacterial reaction centers and reaction centers of photosystems I and II. For the pigment dimers in the antennae, it is found that the mutual orientation of the pigments is optimized for maximum excitonic coupling. A driving force for this orientation is the Coulomb coupling between ground-state charge densities. In the case of excitonic couplings in the "special pairs", a breakdown of the point-dipole approximation is found for all three reaction centers, but the extended dipole approximation works surprisingly well, if the extent of the transition dipole is chosen larger than assumed previously. For the "special pairs", a large shift in local transition energies is found due to charge density coupling.     

Nonadiabatic effects on peptide vibrational dynamics induced by conformational changes

Quantum dynamical simulations of vibrational spectroscopy have been carried out for glycine dipeptide (CH(3)-CO-NH-CH(2)-CO-NH-CH(3)). Conformational structure and dynamics are modeled in terms of the two Ramachandran dihedral angles of the molecular backbone. Potential energy surfaces and harmonic frequencies are obtained from electronic structure calculations at the density functional theory (DFT) [B3LYP/6-31+G(d)] level. The ordering of the energetically most stable isomers (C(7) and C(5)) is reversed upon inclusion of the quantum mechanical zero point vibrational energy. Vibrational spectra of various isomers show distinct differences, mainly in the region of the amide modes, thereby relating conformational structures and vibrational spectra. Conformational dynamics is modeled by propagation of quantum mechanical wave packets. Assuming a directed energy transfer to the torsional degrees of freedom, transitions between the C(7) and C(5) minimum energy structures occur on a sub-picosecond time scale (700...800 fs). Vibrationally nonadiabatic effects are investigated for the case of the coupled, fundamentally excited amide I states. Using a two state-two mode model, the resulting wave packet dynamics is found to be strongly nonadiabatic due to the presence of a seam of the two potential energy surfaces. Initially prepared adiabatic vibrational states decay upon conformational change on a time scale of 200...500 fs with population transfer of more than 50% between the coupled amide I states. Also the vibrational energy transport between localized (excitonic) amide I vibrational states is strongly influenced by torsional dynamics of the molecular backbone where both enhanced and reduced decay rates are found. All these observations should allow the detection of conformational changes by means of time-dependent vibrational spectroscopy.     

Electron dynamics at polyacene/Au(111) interfaces

Two-photon photoemission (2PPE) spectroscopy is used to examine the excited electronic structure and dynamics at polyacene/Au(111) interfaces. Image resonances are observed in all cases (benzene, naphthalene, anthrathene, tetracene, and pentacene), as evidenced by the free-electron like dispersions in the surface plane and the dependences of these resonances on the adsorption of nonane overlayers. The binding energies and lifetimes of these resonances are similar for the five interfaces. Adsorption of nonane on top of these films pushes the electron density in the image resonance away from the metal surface, resulting in a decrease in the binding energy (-0.3 eV) and an increase in the lifetime (from <20 to approximately 110 fs). The insensitivity of the image resonances to the size of polyacene molecules and the absence of photoinduced electron transfer from the metal substrate to molecular states both suggest that the unoccupied molecular orbitals are not strongly coupled to the delocalized metal states or image potential resonances.     

Reconstitution of bacterial photosynthetic unit in a lipid bilayer studied by single-molecule spectroscopy at 5 K

As a model of photosynthetic unit (PSU), self-assembled aggregates of pigment-protein complexes from photosynthetic bacteria were prepared in a lipid bilayer by reconstitution of the light-harvesting 2 (LH2) complex and light-harvesting 1-reaction center (LH1-RC) complex through detergent removal of their micelles in the presence of lipids. By performing polarization-controlled fluorescence and fluorescence-excitation spectroscopy on single aggregates at a temperature of 5 K, the composition of individual aggregates was determined and excitation energy transfer (EET) between constituent complexes was observed. LH2 and LH1-RC from a bacterium, Rhodobacter (Rb.) sphaeroides, were found to form a trimeric aggregate in which EET takes place from one LH2 to two LH1-RCs. In contrast, a heterodimer of LH2 and LH1-RC in which EET works was found to assemble from a combination of complexes of different bacterial species, that is, LH2 from Rb. sphaeroides and LH1-RC from Rhodopseudomonas (Rps.) palustris.     

DFT studies of the interactions of a graphene layer with small water aggregates

We have investigated the structure, adsorption, electronic states, and charge transfer of small water aggregates on the surface of a graphene layer using density functional theory. Our calculations were focused on water adsorbates containing up to five water molecules interacting with one and both sides of a perfect freestanding sheet. Different orientations of the aggregates with respect to the graphene sites were considered. The results show that the adsorption energy of one water molecule is primarily determined by its orientation, although it is also strongly dependent on the implemented functional scheme. Despite its intrinsic difficulties with dispersion interactions, the Perdew and Wang's exchange-correlation functional may be a viable alternative to investigate the adsorption of large molecular aggregates on a graphene surface. Although water physisorption is expected to occur in the regime of droplets, we found no induced impurity states close to the Fermi level of graphene interacting with small water clusters. In order to investigate the donor/acceptor tendency of the water clusters on graphene, we have performed a Bader charge analysis. Considering the charge transfer mechanism, we have noticed that it should preferentially occur from water to graphene only when the oxygen atom is pointing toward the surface. Otherwise, and in the case of larger adsorbed clusters, charge transfers systematically occur from graphene to water.     

Intrinsic optical bistability of thin films of linear molecular aggregates: the two-exciton approximation

We generalize our recent work on the optical bistability of thin films of molecular aggregates [J. A. Klugkist et al., J. Chem. Phys. 127, 164705 (2007)] by accounting for the optical transitions from the one-exciton manifold to the two-exciton manifold as well as the exciton-exciton annihilation of the two-exciton states via a high-lying molecular vibronic term. We also include the relaxation from the vibronic level back to both the one-exciton manifold and the ground state. By selecting the dominant optical transitions between the ground state, the one-exciton manifold, and the two-exciton manifold, we reduce the problem to four levels, enabling us to describe the nonlinear optical response of the film. The one- and two-exciton states are obtained by diagonalizing a Frenkel Hamiltonian with an uncorrelated on-site (diagonal) disorder. The optical dynamics is described by means of the density matrix equations coupled to the electromagnetic field in the film. We show that the one- to two-exciton transitions followed by a fast exciton-exciton annihilation promote the occurrence of bistability and reduce the switching intensity. We provide estimates of pertinent parameters for actual materials and conclude that the effect can be realized.     

Excited state dynamics in photosynthetic reaction center and light harvesting complex 1

Key to efficient harvesting of sunlight in photosynthesis is the first energy conversion process in which electronic excitation establishes a trans-membrane charge gradient. This conversion is accomplished by the photosynthetic reaction center (RC) that is, in case of the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides studied here, surrounded by light harvesting complex 1 (LH1). The RC employs six pigment molecules to initiate the conversion: four bacteriochlorophylls and two bacteriopheophytins. The excited states of these pigments interact very strongly and are simultaneously influenced by the surrounding thermal protein environment. Likewise, LH1 employs 32 bacteriochlorophylls influenced in their excited state dynamics by strong interaction between the pigments and by interaction with the protein environment. Modeling the excited state dynamics in the RC as well as in LH1 requires theoretical methods, which account for both pigment-pigment interaction and pigment-environment interaction. In the present study we describe the excitation dynamics within a RC and excitation transfer between light harvesting complex 1 (LH1) and RC, employing the hierarchical equation of motion method. For this purpose a set of model parameters that reproduce RC as well as LH1 spectra and observed oscillatory excitation dynamics in the RC is suggested. We find that the environment has a significant effect on LH1-RC excitation transfer and that excitation transfers incoherently between LH1 and RC.     

Comparison of the electronic structure of different perylene‐based dye‐aggregates

Aggregates of functionalized polycyclic aromatic molecules like perylene derivatives differ in important optoelectronic properties such as absorption and emission spectra or exciton diffusion lengths. Although those differences are well known, it is not fully understood if they are caused by variations in the geometrical orientation of the molecules within the aggregates, variations in the electronic structures of the dye aggregates or interplay of both. As this knowledge is of interest for the development of materials with optimized functionalities, we investigate this question by comparing the electronic structures of dimer systems of representative perylene‐based chromophores. The study comprises dimers of perylene, 3,4,9,10‐perylene tetracarboxylic acid bisimide (PBI), 3,4,9,10‐perylene tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (PTCDA), and diindeno perylene (DIP). Potential energy curves (PECs) and characters of those electronic states are investigated which determine the optoelectronic properties. The computations use the spin‐component‐scaled approximate coupled‐cluster second‐order method (SCS‐CC2), which describes electronic states of predominately neutral excited (NE) and charge transfer (CT) character equally well. Our results show that the characters of the excited states change significantly with the intermolecular orientation and often represent significant mixtures of NE and CT characters. However, PECs and electronic structures of the investigated perylene derivatives are almost independent of the substitution patterns of the perylene core indicating that the observed differences in the optoelectronic properties mainly result from the geometrical structure of the dye aggregate. It also hints at the fact that optical properties can be computed from less‐substituted model compounds if a proper aggregate geometry is chosen. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theoretical study of dynamic electron-spin-polarization via the doublet-quartet quantum-mixed state (II). Population transfer and magnetic field dependence of the spin polarization

The population transfer to the spin-sublevels of the unique quartet (S = 3/2) high-spin state of the strongly exchange-coupled (SC) radical-triplet pair (for example, an Acceptor-Donor-Radical triad (A-D-R)) via a doublet-quartet quantum-mixed (QM) state is theoretically investigated by a stochastic Liouville equation. In this work, we have treated the loss of the quantum coherence (de-coherence) due to the de-phasing during the population transfer and neglected the effect of other de-coherence mechanisms. The dependences on the magnitude of the exchange coupling or the fine-structure parameter of the QM state are investigated. The dependence on the velocity of the population transfer (by the electron transfer or the energy-transfer) from the QM state to the SC quartet state is also clarified. It is revealed that the de-coherence during the population transfer mainly originates from the fine-structure term of the QM state in the doublet-triplet exchange coupled systems. This de-coherence leads to the unique dynamic electron polarization (DEP) on the high-field spin sublevels of the SC state, which is similar to the unique DEP pattern of the photo-excited triplet states of the reaction centers of photosystems I and II. The magnetic field dependence of the population transfer leading to the populations of the spin-sublevels of the SC states is also calculated. The possibility of the control of energy transport, spin transport and information technology by using the QM state is discussed based on these results. The knowledge obtained in this work is useful in the spin dynamics of any doublet-triplet exchange coupled systems.     

Photophysical properties of natural light-harvesting complexes studied by subsystem density functional theory

In this study, we investigate the excited states and absorption spectra of a natural light-harvesting system by means of subsystem density functional theory. In systems of this type, both specific interactions of the pigments with surrounding protein side chains as well as excitation energy transfer (EET) couplings resulting from the aggregation behavior of the chromophores modify the photophysical properties of the individual pigment molecules. It is shown that the recently proposed approximate scheme (J. Chem. Phys. 2007, 126, 134116) for coupled excitations within a subsystem approach to time-dependent DFT is capable of describing both effects in a consistent manner, and is efficient enough to study even the large assemblies of chromophores occurring in the light-harvesting complex 2 (LH2) of the purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas acidophila. A way to extract phenomenological coupling constants as used in model calculations on EET rates is outlined. The resulting EET coupling constants and spectral properties are in reasonable agreement with the available reference data. Possible problems related to the effective exchange-correlation kernel are discussed.     

Carotenoid radical cation formation in LH2 of purple bacteria: a quantum chemical study

In LH2 complexes of Rhodobacter sphaeroides the formation of a carotenoid radical cation has recently been observed upon photoexcitation of the carotenoid S2 state. To shed more light onto the yet unknown molecular mechanism leading to carotenoid radical formation in LH2, the interactions between carotenoid and bacteriochlorophyll in LH2 are investigated by means of quantum chemical calculations for three different carotenoids--neurosporene, spheroidene, and spheroidenone--using time-dependent density functional theory. Crossings of the calculated potential energy curve of the electron transfer state with the bacteriochlorophyll Qx state and the carotenoid S1 and S2 states occur along an intermolecular distance coordinate for neurosporene and spheroidene, but for spheroidenone no crossing of the electron transfer state with the carotenoid S1 state could be found. By comparison with recent experiments where no formation of a spheroidenone radical cation has been observed, a molecular mechanism for carotenoid radical cation formation is proposed in which it is formed via a vibrationally excited carotenoid S1 or S*state. Arguments are given why the formation of the carotenoid radical cation does not proceed via the Qx, S2, or higher excited electron transfer states.     

Theoretical study of dynamic electron-spin-polarization via the doublet-quartet quantum-mixed state and time-resolved ESR spectra of the quartet high-spin state

The mechanism of the unique dynamic electron polarization of the quartet (S = 3/2) high-spin state via a doublet-quartet quantum-mixed state and detail theoretical calculations of the population transfer are reported. By the photo-induced electron transfer, the quantum-mixed charge-separate state is generated in acceptor-donor-radical triad (A-D-R). This mechanism explains well the unique dynamic electron polarization of the quartet state of A-D-R. The generation of the selectively populated quantum-mixed state and its transfer to the strongly coupled pure quartet and doublet states have been treated both by a perturbation approach and by exact numerical calculations. The analytical solutions show that generation of the quantum-mixed states with the selective populations after de-coherence and/or accompanying the (complete) dephasing during the charge-recombination are essential for the unique dynamic electron polarization. Thus, the elimination of the quantum coherence (loss of the quantum information) is the key process for the population transfer from the quantum-mixed state to the quartet state. The generation of high-field polarization on the strongly coupled quartet state by the charge-recombination process can be explained by a polarization transfer from the quantum-mixed charge-separate state. Typical time-resolved ESR patterns of the quantum-mixed state and of the strongly coupled quartet state are simulated based on the generation mechanism of the dynamic electron polarization. The dependence of the spectral pattern of the quartet high-spin state has been clarified for the fine-structure tensor and the exchange interaction of the quantum-mixed state. The spectral pattern of the quartet state is not sensitive towards the fine-structure tensor of the quantum-mixed state, because this tensor contributes only as a perturbation in the population transfer to the spin-sublevels of the quartet state. Based on the stochastic Liouville equation, it is also discussed why the selective population in the quantum-mixed state is generated for the "finite field" spin-sublevels. The numerical calculations of the elimination of the quantum coherence (de-coherence and/or dephasing) are demonstrated. A new possibility of the enhanced intersystem crossing pathway in solution is also proposed.     

Ultrafast time-resolved carotenoid to-bacteriochlorophyll energy transfer in LH2 complexes from photosynthetic bacteria

Steady-state and ultrafast time-resolved optical spectroscopic investigations have been carried out at 293 and 10 K on LH2 pigment-protein complexes isolated from three different strains of photosynthetic bacteria: Rhodobacter (Rb.) sphaeroides G1C, Rb. sphaeroides 2.4.1 (anaerobically and aerobically grown), and Rps. acidophila 10050. The LH2 complexes obtained from these strains contain the carotenoids, neurosporene, spheroidene, spheroidenone, and rhodopin glucoside, respectively. These molecules have a systematically increasing number of pi-electron conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. Steady-state absorption and fluorescence excitation experiments have revealed that the total efficiency of energy transfer from the carotenoids to bacteriochlorophyll is independent of temperature and nearly constant at approximately 90% for the LH2 complexes containing neurosporene, spheroidene, spheroidenone, but drops to approximately 53% for the complex containing rhodopin glucoside. Ultrafast transient absorption spectra in the near-infrared (NIR) region of the purified carotenoids in solution have revealed the energies of the S1 (2(1)Ag-)-->S2 (1(1)Bu+) excited-state transitions which, when subtracted from the energies of the S0 (1(1)Ag-)-->S2 (1(1)Bu+) transitions determined by steady-state absorption measurements, give precise values for the positions of the S1 (2(1)Ag-) states of the carotenoids. Global fitting of the ultrafast spectral and temporal data sets have revealed the dynamics of the pathways of de-excitation of the carotenoid excited states. The pathways include energy transfer to bacteriochlorophyll, population of the so-called S* state of the carotenoids, and formation of carotenoid radical cations (Car*+). The investigation has found that excitation energy transfer to bacteriochlorophyll is partitioned through the S1 (1(1)Ag-), S2 (1(1)Bu+), and S* states of the different carotenoids to varying degrees. This is understood through a consideration of the energies of the states and the spectral profiles of the molecules. A significant finding is that, due to the low S1 (2(1)Ag-) energy of rhodopin glucoside, energy transfer from this state to the bacteriochlorophylls is significantly less probable compared to the other complexes. This work resolves a long-standing question regarding the cause of the precipitous drop in energy transfer efficiency when the extent of pi-electron conjugation of the carotenoid is extended from ten to eleven conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds in LH2 complexes from purple photosynthetic bacteria.     

Nonempirical statistical theory for molecular evaporation from nonrigid clusters

We propose a nonempirical statistical theory to give the reaction rate and the kinetic energy distribution of fragments for molecular evaporation from highly nonrigid atomic and van der Waals clusters. To quantify the theory, an efficient and accurate method to evaluate the absolute value of classical density of states (the Thomas-Fermi density in phase space) and the flux at the so-called dividing surface is critically important, and we have devised such an efficient method. The theory and associated methods are verified by numerical comparison with the corresponding molecular dynamics simulation through the study of Ar(2) evaporation from Ar(8) cluster, in which evaporation is strongly coupled with structural isomerization dynamics. It turns out that the nonempirical statistical theory gives quite an accurate reaction rate. We also study the kinetic energy release (KER) arising from these evaporations and its Boltzmann-like distribution both for atomic and diatomic evaporations. This provides a general relation between the KER and temperature of the fragments.     

Strongly coupled excitonic states in H-aggregated single crystalline nanoparticles of 2,5-bis(4-methoxybenzylidene) cyclopentanone

This paper reports that extremely strongly coupled excitonic states were formed in H-aggregated monocrystalline nanosheets and semicrystalline nanowires of coplanar organic molecules of 2,5-bis(4-methoxybenzylidene) cyclopentanone, due to the highly regular face-to-face stacking of molecular excitons. It was demonstrated that the spectral absorption and fluorescence emission behaviors are dependent on the routes of molecular aggregation and the ordered degree of molecular arrangement in aggregated nanoparticles. In particular, the H-type aggregation of molecules through a highly ordered molecular arrangement in the monocrystalline nanosheets led to the formation of a new exciton coupling state with an energy band higher than that in normal semi-/noncrystalline H-aggregation. A strong symmetric absorption at higher energy bands was thus observed in the solution of nanosheets. Furthermore, the strongly coupled excitonic state may hold all the oscillator strength, leading to the extinction of the original intramolecular electronic transitions of individual molecules and the appearance of new strong absorption and fluorescence emissions at high-energy bands. These results show a perspective that the ability to control the molecular structure and its arrangement in aggregates holds promise for creating novel optical properties in molecular materials.     

A theoretical investigation into the photophysical properties of ruthenium polypyridine-type complexes

Excited states of ruthenium polypyridine-type complexes have always attracted the interest of chemists. We have recently found evidence of a remarkable long-lived excited state (30 micros) for a Ru(II) complex containing a heteroditopic ligand that can be viewed as a fused phenanthroline and salophen ligand.1 To unravel this intriguing electronic property, we have used density functional theory (DFT) calculations to understand the ground-state properties of [(bpy)(2)Ru(LH(2))](2+), where LH(2) represents N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-(1,10-phenanthroline)diamine. Excited singlet and triplet states have been examined by the time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) formalism and the theoretical findings have been compared with those for the parent complex [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+). The outstanding result is the presence of excited states lower in energy than the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer states, originating from intraligand charge transfer (ILCT) from the phenolic rings to the phenanthroline part of the coordinated LH(2). The spin density distribution for the lowest triplet state provides evidence that it is in fact the lowest triplet state of the free ligand. Correlation between the energy level diagram of orbitals for the ground state and that for the (3)ILCT state clearly establishes that the ruthenium retains its formal Ru(II) oxidation state. The quenching of the luminescence and the evidence of the long-lived excited state observed for [(bpy)(2)Ru(LH(2))](2+) are discussed in the light of the computational results.     

The Excitation Spectra of Naphthalene Dimers: Frenkel and Charge‐transfer Excitons

Vertical electronic excitation energies have been calculated at the second‐order approximate coupled‐cluster (CC2) level for a series of dimeric naphthalene systems. The calculated excitation energies are compared with values obtained for a single naphthalene molecule and provide information about the coupling between the naphthalene moieties in the dimers. The calculations show that the coupling between the naphthalenes depends on the distance and the energy of the exciton. At long distances and high energies the excitons on the two naphthalenes are strongly coupled, whereas the excitation energies of the few lowest states are almost unaffected by the presence of the neighboring molecules. We have also analyzed the composition of the dimeric states that consist of the individual monomer states, to investigate the charge‐transfer (CT) and the Frenkel character of the excitons. Our results indicate that the CT exciton exists at short distances, and that its population drops as the distance between the two naphthalene increases.     

Influence of intermolecular orientation on the photoinduced charge transfer kinetics in self-assembled aggregates of donor-acceptor arrays

The kinetics of photoinduced charge transfer reactions in covalently linked donor-acceptor molecules often undergoes dramatic changes when these molecules self-assemble from a molecular dissolved state into a nanoaggregate. Frequently, the origin of these changes is only partially understood. In this paper, we describe the intermolecular spatial organization of three homologous arrays, consisting of a central perylene bisimide (PERY) acceptor moiety and two oligo(p-phenylene vinylene) (OPV) donor units, in nanoaggregates and identify both face-to-face (H-type) and slipped (J-type) stacking of the OPV and PERY chromophores. For the J-type aggregates, short intermolecular OPV-PERY distances are created that give rise to a charge-transfer absorption band. The proximity of the donor and acceptor groups in the J-type aggregates enables a highly efficient photoinduced charge separation with a rate (k(cs) > 10(12) s(-1)) that significantly exceeds the rate of the intramolecular charge transfer of the same compounds when molecularly dissolved, even in the most polar media. In the H-type aggregates, on the other hand, the intermolecular OPV-PERY distance is not reduced compared to the intramolecular separation, and hence, the rates of the electron transfer reactions are not significantly affected compared to the molecular dissolved state. Similar to the forward electron transfer, the kinetics of the charge recombination in the aggregated state can be understood by considering the different interchromophoric distances that occur in the H- and J-type aggregates. These results provide the first consistent rationalization of the remarkable differences that are observed for photoinduced charge-transfer reactions of donor-acceptor compounds in molecularly dissolved versus aggregated states.     

Molecular properties determined from the relaxation of long-lived spin states

The populations of long-lived spin states, in particular, populations of singlet states that are comprised of antisymmetric combinations of product states, |alpha(I)beta(S)> - |beta(I)alpha(S)>, are characterized by very long lifetimes because the dipole-dipole interaction between the two "active" spins I and S that are involved in such states is inoperative as a relaxation mechanism. The relaxation rate constants of long-lived (singlet) states are therefore determined by the chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) of the active spins and by dipole-dipole interactions with passive spins. For a pair of coupled spins, the singlet-state relaxation rate constants strongly depend on the magnitudes and orientations of the CSA tensors. The relaxation properties of long-lived states therefore reveal new information about molecular symmetry and structure and about spectral density functions that characterize the dynamic behavior.     

Resonance enhanced tunneling in an asymmetric double well potential: The 2B1Σ+ state of HCl

We investigate the exact quantum tunneling dynamics using a density matrix approach in the 2B¹Σ⁺ state of HCl which has recently been calculated to be an asymmetric double well potential. With the exact dynamics and a simple model of the collisional interaction process the transfer rate shows strong resonance enhancement for particular rotational states. The transmission coefficient approach, commonly used in tunneling calculations, shows no such features. This system suggests the possibility of the experimental observation of such rotationally induced tunneling resonances (perhaps in HCl in the gas phase). Although not strongly coupled to the environment itself the large resonance effects, caused by near degeneracies, in this system suggest that in treating systems which are strongly coupled to their environment (such as in the solid state) the exact quantum dynamics should be used rather than the transmission coefficient model.