2007/02/27 by Peter Hamm, G. P. Tsironis
Chemistry · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Acetanilide #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Curse of dimensionality #Exciton #Materials science #Mathematics #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Organic chemistry #Physics #Polaron #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Semiclassical physics #Solid-state spectroscopy and crystallography #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjst/e2007-00215-7
28 pages 13 figures
arxiv created 2007/02/27 · openalex publication_date 2007/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Crystalline acetanilide is a an organic solid with peptide bond structure similar to that of proteins. Two states appear in the amide I spectral region having drastically different properties: one is strongly temperature dependent and disappears at high temperatures while the other is stable at all temperatures. Experimental and theoretical work over the past twenty five years has assigned the former to a selftrapped state while the latter to an extended free exciton state. In this article we review the experimental and theoretical developments on acetanilide paying particular attention to issues that are still pending. Although the interpretation of the states is experimentally sound, we find that specific theoretical comprehension is still lacking. Among the issues that that appear not well understood is the effective dimensionality of the selftrapped polaron and free exciton states.