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Organic Polymer-based photovoltaic systems offer a viable alternative to more standard solid-state devices for light-harvesting applications. In this study, we investigate the electronic dynamics of a model organic photovoltaic (OPV) heterojunction consisting of polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) oligomers and a [ 6,6 ] -phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blend. Our approach treats the classical molecular dynamics of the atoms within an Ehrenfest mean-field treatment of the π - π ⁎ singly excited states spanning a subset of donor and acceptor molecules near the phase boundary of the blend. Our results indicate that interfacial electronic states are modulated by C=C bond stretching motions and that such motions induce avoided crossings between nearby excited states thereby facilitating transitions from localized excitonic configurations to delocalized charge-separated configurations on an ultrafast time-scale. The lowest few excited states of the model interface rapidly mix allowing low frequency C-C out-of-plane torsions to modulate the potential energy surface such that the system can sample both intermolecular charge-transfer and charge-separated electronic configurations on sub-100 fs time scales. Our simulations support an emerging picture of carrier generation in OPV systems in which interfacial electronic states can rapidly decay into charge-separated and current producing states via coupling to vibronic degrees of freedom. 

A time‐convolutionless master equation approach for computing state‐to‐state rates was developed in which the coupling between states depends on the nuclear coordinates. This approach incorporates a fully quantum‐mechanical treatment of both the nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom and recovers the well‐known Marcus expression in the semiclassical limit. A significant breakthrough was made in using this approach by tying it to a fully ab initio quantum chemical approach for determining the diabatic states and electron‐phonon coupling terms, allowing unprecedented accuracy and utility for computing state‐to‐state electronic transition rates. The Weinstein group at the University of Sheffield reported recently upon a series of donor‐bridge‐acceptor (DBA) molecular triads whose electron‐transfer (ET) pathways can be radically changed by infrared light excitation of specific intramolecular vibrations. Once the diabatic states and couplings are determined, the TCLME approach is used to compute the time‐correlation functions and state‐to‐state golden‐rule rates.