On the time-dependent calculation of angular averaged vibronic absorption spectra with an application to molecular aggregates

We introduce an efficient method to determine angular averaged absorption spectra for cases where electronic transitions take place to a manifold of N coupled excited states. The approach rests on the calculation of time-dependent auto-correlation functions which, upon Fourier-transform yield the spectrum. Assuming the Condon-approximation, it is shown that three wave-packet propagations are sufficient to calculate the spectrum. This is in contrast to a direct approach where it is necessary to perform N propagations to arrive at N2 cross-correlation functions. The reduction in computation time is of importance for larger molecular aggregates where the number N is determined by the aggregate size. We provide an example by determining spectra for macrocyclic dyes in different dipole-geometries.