Towards an accurate description of anharmonic infrared spectra in solution within the polarizable continuum model: reaction field, cavity field and nonequilibrium effects.

We present a newly developed and implemented methodology to perturbatively evaluate anharmonic vibrational frequencies and infrared (IR) intensities of solvated systems described by means of the polarizable continuum model (PCM). The essential aspects of the theoretical model and of the implementation are described and some numerical tests are shown, with special emphasis towards the evaluation of IR intensities, for which the quality of the present method is compared to other methodologies widely used in the literature. Proper account of an incomplete solvation regime in the treatment of the molecular vibration is also considered, as well as inclusion of the coupling between the solvent and the probing field (cavity field effects). In order to assess the quality of our approach, comparison with experimental findings is reported for selected cases.