Joshua J. Goings

Energy-Specific Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster Methods for High-Energy Excited States: Application to K-edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

Single-reference techniques based on coupled-cluster (CC) theory, in the forms of linear response (LR) or equation of motion (EOM), are highly accurate and widely used approaches for modeling valence absorption spectra. Unfortunately, these equations with singles and doubles (LR-CCSD and EOM-CCSD) scale as O(N⁶), which may be prohibitively expensive for the study of high-energy excited states using a conventional eigensolver. In this paper, we present an energy-specific non-Hermitian eigensolver that is able to obtain high-energy excited states (e.g., XAS K-edge spectrum) at low computational cost. In addition, we also introduce an improved trial vector for iteratively solving the EOM-CCSD equation with a focus on high-energy eigenstates. The energy-specific EOM-CCSD approach and its low-scaling alternatives are applied to calculations of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur K-edge excitations. The results are compared to other implementations of CCSD for excited states, energy-specific linear response time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), and experimental results with multiple statistical metrics are presented and evaluated.

Real time propagation of the exact two component time-dependent density functional theory

We report the development of a real time propagation method for solving the time-dependent relativistic exact two-component density functional theory equations (RT-X2C-TDDFT). The method is fundamentally non-perturbative and may be employed to study nonlinear responses for heavy elements which require a relativistic Hamiltonian. We apply the method to several group 12 atoms as well as heavy-element hydrides, comparing with the extensive theoretical and experimental studies on this system, which demonstrates the correctness of our approach. Because the exact two-component Hamiltonian contains spin-orbit operators, the method is able to describe the non-zero transition moment of otherwise spin-forbidden processes in non-relativistic theory. Furthermore, the two-component approach is more cost effective than the full four-component approach, with similar accuracy. The RT-X2C-TDDFT will be useful in future studies of systems containing heavy elements interacting with strong external fields.

Ab initio non-relativistic spin dynamics.

Many magnetic materials do not conform to the (anti-)ferromagnetic paradigm where all electronic spins are aligned to a global magnetization axis. Unfortunately, most electronic structure methods cannot describe such materials with noncollinear electron spin on account of formally requiring spin alignment. To overcome this limitation, it is necessary to generalize electronic structure methods and allow each electron spin to rotate freely. Here, we report the development of an ab initio time-dependent non-relativistic two-component spinor (TDN2C), which is a generalization of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock equations. Propagating the TDN2C equations in the time domain allows for the first-principles description of spin dynamics. A numerical tool based on the Hirshfeld partitioning scheme is developed to analyze the time-dependent spin magnetization. In this work, we also introduce the coupling between electron spin and a homogenous magnetic field into the TDN2C framework to simulate the response of the electronic spin degrees of freedom to an external magnetic field. This is illustrated for several model systems, including the spin-frustrated Li3 molecule. Exact agreement is found between numerical and analytic results for Larmor precession of hydrogen and lithium atoms. The TDN2C method paves the way for the ab initio description of molecular spin transport and spintronics in the time domain.

Stability of the complex generalized Hartree-Fock equations.

For molecules with complex and competing magnetic interactions, it is often the case that the lowest energy Hartree-Fock solution may only be obtained by removing the spin and time-reversal symmetry constraints of the exact non-relativistic Hamiltonian. To do so results in the complex generalized Hartree-Fock (GHF) method. However, with the loss of variational constraints comes the greater possibility of converging to higher energy minima. Here, we report the implementation of stability test of the complex GHF equations, along with an orbital update scheme should an instability be found. We apply the methodology to finding the local minima of several spin-frustrated hydrogen rings, as well as the non-collinear molecular magnet Cr3, illustrating the utility of the broken symmetry GHF method and some of its lesser-known nuances.

Ab initio two-component Ehrenfest dynamics

We present an ab initio two-component Ehrenfest-based mixed quantum/classical molecular dynamics method to describe the effect of nuclear motion on the electron spin dynamics (and vice versa) in molecular systems. The two-component time-dependent non-collinear density functional theory is used for the propagation of spin-polarized electrons while the nuclei are treated classically. We use a three-time-step algorithm for the numerical integration of the coupled equations of motion, namely, the velocity Verlet for nuclear motion, the nuclear-position-dependent midpoint Fock update, and the modified midpoint and unitary transformation method for electronic propagation. As a test case, the method is applied to the dissociation of H2 and O2. In contrast to conventional Ehrenfest dynamics, this two-component approach provides a first principles description of the dynamics of non-collinear (e.g., spin-frustrated) magnetic materials, as well as the proper description of spin-state crossover, spin-rotation, and spin-flip dynamics by relaxing the constraint on spin configuration. This method also holds potential for applications to spin transport in molecular or even nanoscale magnetic devices.

Assessment of low-scaling approximations to the equation of motion coupled-cluster singles and doubles equations

Methods for fast and reliable computation of electronic excitation energies are in short supply, and little is known about their systematic performance. This work reports a comparison of several low-scaling approximations to the equation of motion coupled cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) and linear-response coupled cluster singles and doubles (LR-CCSD) equations with other single reference methods for computing the vertical electronic transition energies of 11 small organic molecules. The methods, including second order equation-of-motion many-body perturbation theory (EOM-MBPT2) and its partitioned variant, are compared to several valence and Rydberg singlet states. We find that the EOM-MBPT2 method was rarely more than a tenth of an eV from EOM-CCSD calculated energies, yet demonstrates a performance gain of nearly 30%. The partitioned equation-of-motion approach, P-EOM-MBPT2, which is an order of magnitude faster than EOM-CCSD, outperforms the CIS(D) and CC2 in the description of Rydberg states. CC2, on the other hand, excels at describing valence states where P-EOM-MBPT2 does not. The difference between the CC2 and P-EOM-MBPT2 can ultimately be traced back to how each method approximates EOM-CCSD and LR-CCSD. The results suggest that CC2 and P-EOM-MBPT2 are complementary: CC2 is best suited for the description of valence states while P-EOM-MBPT2 proves to be a superior O(N(5)) method for the description of Rydberg states.

Direct Atomic-Orbital-Based Relativistic Two-Component Linear Response Method for Calculating Excited-State Fine Structures.

In this work, we present a linear-response formalism of the complex two-component Hartree-Fock Hamiltonian that includes relativistic effects within the Douglas-Kroll-Hess and the Exact-Two-Component frameworks. The method includes both scalar and spin relativistic effects in the variational description of electronic ground and excited states, although it neglects the picture-change and explicit spin-orbit contributions arising from the two-electron interaction. An efficient direct formalism of solving the complex two-component response function is also presented in this work. The presence of spin-orbit couplings in the Hamiltonian and the two-component nature of the wave function and Fock operator allows the computation of excited-state zero-field splittings of systems for which relativistic effects are dominated by the one-electron term. Calculated results are compared to experimental reference values to assess the quality of the underlying approximations. The results show that the relativistic two-component linear response methods are able to capture the excited-state zero-field splittings with good agreement with experiments for the systems considered here, with all approximations exhibiting a similar performance. However, the error increases for heavy elements and for states of high orbital angular momentum, suggesting the importance of the two-electron relativistic effect in such situations.

An atomic orbital based real-time time-dependent density functional theory for computing electronic circular dichroism band spectra

One of the challenges of interpreting electronic circular dichroism (ECD) band spectra is that different states may have different rotatory strength signs, determined by their absolute configuration. If the states are closely spaced and opposite in sign, observed transitions may be washed out by nearby states, unlike absorption spectra where transitions are always positive additive. To accurately compute ECD bands, it is necessary to compute a large number of excited states, which may be prohibitively costly if one uses the linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) framework. Here we implement a real-time, atomic-orbital based TDDFT method for computing the entire ECD spectrum simultaneously. The method is advantageous for large systems with a high density of states. In contrast to previous implementations based on real-space grids, the method is variational, independent of nuclear orientation, and does not rely on pseudopotential approximations, making it suitable for computation of chiroptical properties well into the X-ray regime.

Two-Component Noncollinear Time-Dependent Spin Density Functional Theory for Excited State Calculations

We present a linear response formalism for the description of the electronic excitations of a noncollinear reference defined via Kohn-Sham spin density functional methods. A set of auxiliary variables, defined using the density and noncollinear magnetization density vector, allows the generalization of spin density functional kernels commonly used in collinear DFT to noncollinear cases, including local density, GGA, meta-GGA and hybrid functionals. Working equations and derivations of functional second derivatives with respect to the noncollinear density, required in the linear response noncollinear TDDFT formalism, are presented in this work. This formalism takes all components of the spin magnetization into account independent of the type of reference state (open or closed shell). As a result, the method introduced here is able to afford a nonzero local xc torque on the spin magnetization while still satisfying the zero-torque theorem globally. The formalism is applied to a few test cases using the variational exact-two-component reference including spin-orbit coupling to illustrate the capabilities of the method.

Imaging Excited Orbitals of Quantum Dots: Experiment and Electronic Structure Theory

Electronically excited orbitals play a fundamental role in chemical reactivity and spectroscopy. In nanostructures, orbital shape is diagnostic of defects that control blinking, surface carrier dynamics, and other important optoelectronic properties. We capture nanometer resolution images of electronically excited PbS quantum dots (QDs) by single molecule absorption scanning tunneling microscopy (SMA-STM). Dots with a bandgap of ∼1 eV are deposited on a transparent gold surface and optically excited with red or green light to produce hot carriers. The STM tip-enhanced laser light produces a large excited-state population, and the Stark effect allows transitions to be tuned into resonance by changing the sample voltage. Scanning the QDs under laser excitation, we were able to image electronic excitation to different angular momentum states depending on sample bias. The shapes differ from idealized S- or P-like orbitals due to imperfections of the QDs. Excitation of adjacent QD pairs reveals orbital alignment, evidence for electronic coupling between dots. Electronic structure modeling of a small PbS QD, when scaled for size, reveals Stark tuning and variation in the transition moment of different parity states, supporting the simple one-electron experimental interpretation in the hot carrier limit. The calculations highlight the sensitivity of orbital density to applied field, laser wavelength, and structural fluctuations of the QD.