The electron–phonon coupling of fundamental, overtone, and combination modes and its effects on the resonance Raman spectra

• The Huang–Rhys factors and electron–phonon coupling constants are calculated.
• The changes of overtone mode are larger than those of fundamental mode.
• The variation pattern of electron–phonon coupling well interprets the changes of spectra.

External field plays a very important role in the interaction between the π-electron transition and atomic vibration of polyenes. It has significant effects on both the Huang–Rhys factor and the electron–phonon coupling. In this paper, the visible absorption and resonance Raman spectra of all-trans-β-carotene are measured in the 345–295 K temperature range and it is found that the changes of the 0–1 and 0–2 vibration bands of the absorption spectra with the temperature lead to the different electron–phonon coupling of fundamental, overtone, and combination modes. The electron-phonon coupling constants of all the modes are calculated and analyzed under different temperatures. The variation law of the electron–phonon coupling with the temperature well interprets the changes of the resonance Raman spectra, such as the shift, intensity and line width of the overtone and combination modes, which are all greater than those of the fundamental modes.

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