The theoretical study of molecular excited states is a topic of growing interest due to its potential applications in many areas. The development of faster computers and new methodologies has allowed to study increasingly large systems and also to broaden the traditionally static perspective of these studies, tackling the time evolution of the excited states. This is an area of interest for many possible PhD or master students working not only in theory but also in experimental photochemistry or photophysics. In our experience, with more than 10 years teaching this subject at master and doctorate level, this subject requires combining theory and practice for the students to fully understand the concepts and methods.
Excited state modelling is probably the area of quantum chemistry that requires more training. These calculations can rarely be run as a "black box". In fact these calculations require the detailed selection of the configurations and the careful analysis of their convergence. Thus, practical exercises are crucial to have an in depth insight into the methodology. For this reason, we believe that this topic perfectly suits the proposed structure of a course with an equal distribution of theory and practice.
The tutorial we propose on "Molecular Excited States" will be part of the European Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling (EMTCCM, see details at www.emtcccm.org) for first year Spanish Students, but this course is intended to be open to other participants not involved in the master. Our goal is to offer our teaching experience on this subject not only to the students doing the EMTCCM master in Spain, but also to other European master or doctorate students, favoring the reinforcement of the contacts with other masters and European initiatives.
The level of the course corresponds to master or doctorate students in the areas of physics and chemistry. For Spanish students of the EMTCCM master, this tutorial will be a part of a more general optional course on excited states. The tutorial will be organized for a maximum number of 40 students, from which 20 are expected to belong to the EMTCCM master.