The electronic excited states of green fluorescent protein chromophore models

We explore the properties of quantum chemical approximations to the excited states of model chromophores of the green fluorescent protein of A. victoria. We calculate several low-lying states by several methods of quantum chemical calculation, including state-averaged complete active space SCF (CASSCF) methods, time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), equation-of motion coupled cluster (EOM-CCSD) and multireference perturbation theory (MRPT). Amongst the low-lying states we identify the optically bright pipi* state of the molecules and examine its properties. We demonstrate that the state is dominated by a single configuration function. We calculate zero-time approximations to the resonance Raman spectrum of GFP chromophore models, and assign published spectra based upon these.