No Arabic abstract
We present a method to efficiently combine the computation of electron-electron and electron-phonon self-energies, which enables the evaluation of electron-phonon coupling at the $G_0W_0$ level of theory for systems with hundreds of atoms. In addition, our approach, which is a generalization of a method recently proposed for molecules [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2018, 14, 6269-6275], enables the inclusion of non-adiabatic and temperature effects at no additional computational cost. We present results for diamond and defects in diamond and discuss the importance of numerically accurate $G_0W_0$ band structures to obtain robust predictions of zero point renormalization (ZPR) of band gaps, and of the inclusion of non-adiabatic effect to accurately compute the ZPR of defect states in the band gap.
We develop a method for calculating the electron-phonon vertex in polar semiconductors and insulators from first principles. The present formalism generalizes the Frohlich vertex to the case of anisotropic materials and multiple phonon branches, and can be used either as a post-processing correction to standard electron-phonon calculations, or in conjunction with {it ab initio} interpolation based on maximally localized Wannier functions. We demonstrate this formalism by investigating the electron-phonon interactions in anatase TiO$_2$, and show that the polar vertex significantly reduces the electron lifetimes and enhances the anisotropy of the coupling. The present work enables {it ab initio} calculations of carrier mobilities, lifetimes, mass enhancement, and pairing in polar materials.
Core-level X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) is often used to study the surfaces of heterogeneous copper-based catalysts, but the interpretation of measured spectra, in particular the assignment of peaks to adsorbed species, can be extremely challenging. In this study we demonstrate that first principles calculations using the delta Self Consistent Field (delta-SCF) method can be used to guide the analysis of experimental core-level spectra of complex surfaces relevant to heterogeneous catalysis. Specifically, we calculate core-level binding energy shifts for a series of adsorbates on Cu(111) and show that the resulting C1s and O1s binding energy shifts for adsorbed CO, CO2, C2H4, HCOO, CH3O, H2O, OH and a surface oxide on Cu(111) are in good overall agreement with the experimental literature. In the few cases where the agreement is less good, the theoretical results may indicate the need to re-examine experimental peak assignments.
Nonequilibrium electron dynamics in solids is an important subject from both fundamental and technological points of view. The recent development of laser technology has enabled us to study ultrafast electron dynamics in the time domain. First-principles calculation is a powerful tool for analyzing such complex electron dynamics and clarifying the physics behind the experimental observation. In this article, we review the recent development of the first-principles calculation for light-induced electron dynamics in solids by revising its application to recent attosecond experiments. The electron dynamics calculations offer an accurate description of static and transient optical properties of solids and provide physics insight into light-induced electron dynamics. Furthermore, the microscopic decomposition of transient properties of nonequilibrium systems has been developed to extract microscopic information from the simulation results. The first-principles analysis opened a novel path to analyze the nonequilibrium electron dynamics in matter and to provide the fundamental understanding complementarily with the sophisticated experimental technique.
Core-electron x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying the electronic structure and chemical composition of molecules, solids and surfaces. However, the interpretation of measured spectra and the assignment of peaks to atoms in specific chemical environments is often challenging. Here, we address this problem and introduce a parameter-free computational approach for calculating absolute core-electron binding energies. In particular, we demonstrate that accurate absolute binding energies can be obtained from the total energy difference of the ground state and a state with an explicit core hole when exchange and correlation effects are described by a recently developed meta-generalized gradient approximation and relativistic effects are included even for light elements. We carry out calculations for molecules, solids and surface species and find excellent agreement with available experimental measurements. For example, we find a mean absolute error of only 0.16 eV for a reference set of 103 molecular core-electron binding energies. The capability to calculate accurate absolute core-electron binding energies will enable new insights into a wide range of chemical surface processes that are studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) has attracted an increasing interest due to its potential to overcome the efficiency limit of traditional photovoltaics, and much effort has been devoted to understanding its underlying physics. However, previous work has shown that theoretical models of the shift current and the phonon-assisted ballistic current in real materials do not fully account for the experimental BPVE photocurrent, and so other mechanisms should be investigated in order to obtain a complete picture of BPVE. In this Letter, we demonstrate two approaches that enable the ab initio calculation of the ballistic current originating from the electron-hole interaction in semiconductors. Using BaTiO$_3$ and MoS$_2$ as two examples, we show clearly that for them the asymmetric scattering from electron-hole interaction is less appreciable than that from electron-phonon interaction, indicating more scattering processes need to be included to further improve the BPVE theory. Moreover, our approaches build up a venue for predicting and designing materials with larger ballistic current due to electron-hole interactions.