Chaotic Soliton Dynamics in Photoexcited trans-Polyacetylene.

We study the photogeneration of topological solitons in trans-polyacetylene and their time evolution using ab initio excited-state dynamics. The system is excited to the optically allowed 1(1)Bu state, and the atoms are then propagated classically using quantum mechanical forces computed using hybrid time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). A soliton/antisoliton pair nucleates spontaneously and creates two independent solitons moving at constant velocity, similar to simulations based on uncorrelated lattice models like the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) Hamiltonian [Su, W. P.; Schrieffer, J. R.; Heeger, A. J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1979, 42, 1698]. At T = 0, the solitons coalesce into bound pairs with a two-soliton functional form, whereas chaotic dynamics, in the form of 2-bounce resonances, is observed at soliton/antisoliton collisions at T ≠ 0. This behavior is related to the onset of a strong correlation regime at short intersoliton distance, which is not accounted for by SSH simulations.