No Arabic abstract
The time-dependent density functional based tight-binding (TD-DFTB) approach is generalized to account for fractional occupations. In addition, an on-site correction leads to marked qualitative and quantitative improvements over the original method. Especially, the known failure of TD-DFTB for the description of sigma -> pi* and n -> pi* excitations is overcome. Benchmark calculations on a large set of organic molecules also indicate a better description of triplet states. The accuracy of the revised TD-DFTB method is found to be similar to first principles TD-DFT calculations at a highly reduced computational cost. As a side issue, we also discuss the generalization of the TD-DFTB method to spin-polarized systems. In contrast to an earlier study [Trani et al., JCTC 7 3304 (2011)], we obtain a formalism that is fully consistent with the use of local exchange-correlation functionals in the ground state DFTB method.
Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is a computationally efficient first-principles approach for calculating optical spectra in insulators and semiconductors, including excitonic effects. We show how exciton wave functions can be obtained from TDDFT via the Kohn-Sham transition density matrix, both in the frequency-dependent linear-response regime and in real-time propagation. The method is illustrated using one-dimensional model solids. In particular, we show that our approach provides insight into the formation and dissociation of excitons in real time. This opens the door to time-resolved studies of exciton dynamics in materials by means of real-time TDDFT.
The self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (DFTB) theory is a useful tool for realizing the electronic structures of large molecular complex systems. In this study, we analyze the electronic structure of C61, formed by fullerene C60 with a carbon adatom, using the fully localized limit and pseudo self-interaction correction methods of DFTB to adjust the Hubbard U parameter (DFTB+U). The results show that both the methods used to adjust U can significantly reduce the molecular orbital energy of occupied states localized on the defect carbon atom and improve the gap between highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO) of C61. This work will provide a methodological reference point for future DFTB calculations of the electronic structures of carbon materials.
We present accurate optical spectra of semiconductors and insulators within a pure Kohn-Sham time-dependent density-functional approach. In particular, we show that the onset of the absorption is well reproduced when comparing to experiment. No empirical information nor a theory beyond Kohn-Sham density-functional theory, such as $GW$, is invoked to correct the Kohn-Sham gap. Our approach relies on the link between the exchange-correlation kernel of time-dependent density functional theory and the derivative discontinuity of ground-state density-functional theory. We show explicitly how to relate these two quantities. We illustrate the accuracy and simplicity of our approach by applying it to various semiconductors (Si, GaP, GaAs) and wide-gap insulators (C, LiF, Ar).
Excitons are electron-hole pairs appearing below the band gap in insulators and semiconductors. They are vital to photovoltaics, but are hard to obtain with time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT), since most standard exchange-correlation (xc) functionals lack the proper long-range behavior. Furthermore, optical spectra of bulk solids calculated with TDDFT often lack the required resolution to distinguish discrete, weakly bound excitons from the continuum. We adapt the Casida equation formalism for molecular excitations to periodic solids, which allows us to obtain exciton binding energies directly. We calculate exciton binding energies for both small- and large-gap semiconductors and insulators, study the recently proposed bootstrap xc kernel [S. Sharma et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 186401 (2011)], and extend the formalism to triplet excitons.
Inspired by the formulation of quantum-electrodynamical time-dependent density functional theory (QED-TDDFT) by Rubio and coworkers, we propose an implementation that uses dimensionless amplitudes for describing the photonic contributions to QED-TDDFT electron-photon eigenstates. The leads to a symmetric QED-TDDFT coupling matrix, which is expected to facilitate the future development of analytic derivatives. Through a Gaussian atomic basis implementation of the QED-TDDFT method, we examined the effect of dipole self-energy, rotating wave approximation, and the Tamm-Dancoff approximation on the QED-TDDFT eigenstates of model compounds (ethene, formaldehyde, and benzaldehyde) in an optical cavity. We highlight, in the strong coupling regime, the role of higher-energy and off-resonance excited states with large transition dipole moments in the direction of the photonic field, which are automatically accounted for in our QED-TDDFT calculations and might substantially affect the energy and composition of polaritons associated with lower-energy electronic states.