Combined treatment of relaxation and fluctuation dynamics in the calculation of two-dimensional electronic spectra.

While the theoretical description of population transfer subsequent to electronic excitation in combination with a line shape function description of vibrational dynamics in the context of 2D-spectroscopy is well-developed under the assumption of different timescales of population transfer and fluctuation dynamics, the treatment of the interplay between both kinds of processes lacks a comprehensive description. To bridge this gap, we use the cumulant expansion approach to derive response functions, which account for fluctuation dynamics and population transfer simultaneously. We compare 2D-spectra of a model system under different assumptions about correlations between fluctuations and point out under which conditions a simplified treatment is justified. Our study shows that population transfer and dissipative fluctuation dynamics cannot be described independent of each other in general. Advantages and limitations of the proposed calculation method and its compatibility with the modified Redfield description are discussed.