| Abstract: | The effects of quartic anharmonicity on the quantum dynamics of a linear oscillator with time-dependent force constant (K) or harmonic frequency (ω) are studied both perturbatively and numerically by the time-dependent Fourier grid Hamiltonian method. In the absence of anharmonicity, the ground-state population decreases and the population of an accessible excited state (k = 2, 4, 6…) increases with time. However, when anharmonicity is introduced, both the ground- and excited-state populations show typical oscillations. For weak coupling, the population of an accessible excited state at a certain instant of time (short) turns out to be a parabolic function of the anharmonic coupling constant (λ), when all other parameters of the system are kept fixed. This parabolic nature of the excited-state population vs. the λ profile is independent of the specific form of the time dependence of the force constant, Kt. However, it depends upon the rate at which Kt relaxes. For small anharmonic coupling strength and short time scales, the numerical results corroborate expectations based on the first-order time-dependent perturbative analysis, using a suitably repartitioned Hamiltonian that makes H0 time-independent. Some of the possible experimental implications of our observations are analyzed, especially in relation to intensity oscillations observed in some charge-transfer spectra in systems in which the dephasing rates are comparable with the time scale of the electron transfer. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
