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Ground and Excited States of Retinal Schiff Base Chromophores by Multiconfigurational Perturbation Theory

Department of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Campus Duisburg, D-47048 Duisburg, Germany

Correspondence: Address reprint requests and inquiries to V. Buss, Tel.: 49-203-379-3315; Fax: 49-203-379-2772; E-mail: theobuss{at}uni-duisburg.de.

We have studied the wavelength dependence of retinal Schiff base absorbencies on the protonation state of the chromophore at the multiconfigurational level of theory using second order perturbation theory (CASPT2) within an atomic natural orbital basis set on MP2 optimized geometries. Quantitative agreement between calculated and experimental absorption maxima was obtained for protonated and deprotonated Schiff bases of all-trans- and 11-cis-retinal and intermediate states covering a wavelength range from 610 to 353 nm. These data will be useful as reference points for the calibration of more approximate schemes.