Depolarization dispersion curves of resonance Raman fundamentals of metalloporphyrins and metallophthalocyanines subject to asymmetric perturbations

A model is presented that allows the investigation of depolarization dispersion curves of a_1g,a_2g,b_1g and b_2g resonance Raman fundamentals in the region of the Q state of metalloporphyrins and metallophthalocyanines. This dispersion results from electronic and/or vibronic perturbations of A_2g,B_1g and B_2g symmetry due to asymmetric substituents and/or metal ion-ring interaction acting on the porphyrin (phthalocyanine) ring. The electronic perturbations affect the electronic configuration interaction pattern between the four orbital components of the Q and B states, yielding thereby similar depolarization dispersion curves for all modes of a given symmetry, whereas the vibronic perturbations affect selectively the vibronic coupling matrix of a particular mode. Depolarization dispersion curves resulting from A_2g and B_1g perturbations are treated separately, and many helpful perturbational formulas are given for use in analyzing experimental data. Examples of depolarization dispersion curves and excitation profiles of fundamentals of a_1g, a_2g, b_1g and b_2g symmetry are presented. It is shown that strong depolarization dispersion observed in copper chelate of mesoporphyrin IX dimethyl ester for a_1g and a_2g fundamentals can be explained in terms of an A_2g electronic perturbation and a vibronic a_2g perturbation suffered by the a_1g(1131 cm^?1) fundamental. Similarly, the depolarization dispersion curves observed for fundamentals in cytochrome c and Pt-phthalocyanine are explained in terms of an electronic B_1g perturbation, together with selective b_1g vibronic perturbations acting on the 1310 cm^?1 a_2g fundamental in cytochrome c and the 482 cm^?1 b_2g fundamental in Pt-phthalocyanine. The agreement between the depolarization dispersion curves predicted by our model and experimental data is shown to be satisfactory.