Electronic Couplings for Resonance Energy Transfer from CCSD Calculations: From Isolated to Solvated Systems

Quantum mechanical (QM) calculations of electronic couplings provide great insights for the study of resonance energy transfer (RET). However, most of these calculations rely on approximate QM methods due to the computational limitations imposed by the size of typical donor-acceptor systems. In this work, we present a novel implementation that allows computing electronic couplings at the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) level of theory. Solvent effects are also taken into account through the polarizable continuum model (PCM). As a test case, we use a dimer of indole, a common model system for tryptophan, which is routinely used as an intrinsic fluorophore in Förster resonance energy transfer studies. We consider two bright π → π∗ states, one of which has charge transfer character. Lastly, the results are compared with those obtained by applying TD-DFT in combination with one of the most popular density functionals, B3LYP.