S. J. A. van Gisbergen

Chemistry with ADF

We present the theoretical and technical foundations of the Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) program with a survey of the characteristics of the code (numerical integration, density fitting for the Coulomb potential, and STO basis functions). Recent developments enhance the efficiency of ADF (e.g., parallelization, near order‐N scaling, QM/MM) and its functionality (e.g., NMR chemical shifts, COSMO solvent effects, ZORA relativistic method, excitation energies, frequency‐dependent (hyper)polarizabilities, atomic VDD charges). In the Applications section we discuss the physical model of the electronic structure and the chemical bond, i.e., the Kohn–Sham molecular orbital (MO) theory, and illustrate the power of the Kohn–Sham MO model in conjunction with the ADF‐typical fragment approach to quantitatively understand and predict chemical phenomena. We review the “Activation‐strain TS interaction” (ATS) model of chemical reactivity as a conceptual framework for understanding how activation barriers of various types of (competing) reaction mechanisms arise and how they may be controlled, for example, in organic chemistry or homogeneous catalysis. Finally, we include a brief discussion of exemplary applications in the field of biochemistry (structure and bonding of DNA) and of time‐dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to indicate how this development further reinforces the ADF tools for the analysis of chemical phenomena.

Molecular calculations of excitation energies and (hyper)polarizabilities.

An approximate Kohn–Sham exchange-correlation potential νxcSAOP is developed with the method of statistical averaging of (model) orbital potentials (SAOP) and is applied to the calculation of excitation energies as well as of static and frequency-dependent multipole polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities within time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). νxcSAOP provides high quality results for all calculated response properties and a substantial improvement upon the local density approximation (LDA) and the van Leeuwen–Baerends (LB) potentials for the prototype molecules CO, N2, CH2O, and C2H4. For the first three molecules and the lower excitations of the C2H4 the average error of the vertical excitation energies calculated with νxcSAOP approaches the benchmark accuracy of 0.1 eV for the electronic spectra.

Implementation of time-dependent density functional response equations

Time-dependent density functional theory provides a first principles method for the calculation of frequency-dependent polarizabilities, hyperpolarizabilities, excitation energies and many related response properties. In recent years, the molecular results obtained by several groups have shown that this approach is in general more accurate than the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach, and is often competitive in accuracy with computationally more demanding conventional ab initio approaches. In this paper, our implementation of the relevant equations in the Amsterdam Density Functional program is described. We will focus on certain aspects of the implementation which are necessary for an efficient evaluation of the desired properties, enabling the treatment of large molecules. Such an efficient implementation is obtained by: using the full symmetry of the molecule, using a set of auxiliary functions for fitting the (zeroth- and first-order) electron density, using a highly vectorized and parallelized code, using linear scaling techniques, and, most importantly, by solving the response equations iteratively.

Assessment of conventional density functional schemes for computing the polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities of conjugated oligomers: An ab initio investigation of polyacetylene chains

DFT schemes based on conventional and less conventional exchange-correlation (XC) functionals have been employed to determine the polarizability and second hyperpolarizability of π-conjugated polyacetylene chains. These functionals fail in one or more of several ways: (i) the correlation correction to α is either much too small or in the wrong direction, leading to an overestimate; (ii) γ is significantly overestimated; (iii) the chain length dependence is excessively large, particularly for γ and for the more alternant system; and (iv) the bond length alternation effects on γ are either underestimated or qualitatively incorrect. The poor results with the asymptotically correct van Leeuwen–Baerends XC potential show that the overestimations are not related to the asymptotic behavior of the potential. These failures are described in terms of the separate effects of the exchange and the correlation parts of the XC functionals. They are related to the short-sightedness of the XC potentials which are relatively insensitive to the polarization charge induced by the external electric field at the chain ends.

Shape corrections to exchange-correlation potentials by gradient-regulated seamless connection of model potentials for inner and outer region

Shape corrections to the standard approximate Kohn-Sham exchange-correlation (xc) potentials are considered with the aim to improve the excitation energies (especially for higher excitations) calculated with time-dependent density functional perturbation theory. A scheme of gradient-regulated connection (GRAC) of inner to outer parts of a model potential is developed. Asymptotic corrections based either on the potential of Fermi and Amaldi or van Leeuwen and Baerends (LB) are seamlessly connected to the (shifted) xc potential of Becke and Perdew (BP) with the GRAC procedure, and are employed to calculate the vertical excitation energies of the prototype molecules N2, CO, CH2O, C2H4, C5NH5, C6H6, Li2, Na2, K2. The results are compared with those of the alternative interpolation scheme of Tozer and Handy as well as with the results of the potential obtained with the statistical averaging of (model) orbital potentials. Various asymptotically corrected potentials produce high quality excitation energies, whic...

A density functional theory study of frequency-dependent polarizabilities and Van der Waals dispersion coefficients for polyatomic molecules

A method for calculating frequency‐dependent polarizabilities and Van der Waals dispersion coefficients, which scales favorably with the number of electrons, has been implemented in the Amsterdam Density Functional package. Time‐dependent Density Functional Theory is used within the Adiabatic Local Density Approximation (ALDA). Contrary to earlier studies with this approximation, our implementation applies to arbitrary closed‐shell molecular systems. Our results for the isotropic part of the Van der Waals dispersion energy are of comparable quality as those obtained in TDCHF calculations. The ALDA results for the relative anisotropy of the dipole dispersion energy compare favorably to TDCHF and MBPT results. Two semi‐empirical ways to calculate the dispersion energy anisotropy are evaluated. Large bases which include diffuse functions are necessary for a good description of the frequency‐dependent properties considered here.

A DFT/TDDFT interpretation of the ground and excited states of porphyrin and porphyrazine complexes

Abstract A comprehensive treatment is given of the electronic excitation spectra of Mg, Zn and Ni complexes of porphyrin and porphyrazine using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). It is emphasized that the Kohn–Sham (KS) molecular orbital (MO) method, which is the basis for the TDDFT calculations, affords a MO interpretation of the ground state electronic structure and of the nature of the excitations. This implies that a direct connection can be made to many previous MO treatments of the title compounds. We discuss in particular, how the original explanations of the intensity distribution over the lowest excitations (the Q and B bands) in terms of a cyclic polyene model, or even a free-electron model, can be reconciled with the actual molecular and electronic structure of these compounds being much more complicated than these simple models. A fragment approach is used, building the porphyrin ring from pyrrole rings and CH or N bridges. This leads directly to a simple interpretation of the orbitals of Goutermans four-orbital model, which are responsible for the Q and B bands. It also leads to additional occupied π-orbitals which are absent in the cyclic polyene model and which need to be invoked to understand other features of the electronic spectra such as the origin of the N, L and M bands. Considerable attention is given to the intensities of the various transitions, explaining why the transitions within the so-called four-orbital model of Gouterman have large transition dipoles, why transitions from additional occupied π-orbitals have relatively small transition dipoles.

Improved density functional theory results for frequency‐dependent polarizabilities, by the use of an exchange‐correlation potential with correct asymptotic behavior

The exchange-correlation potentials v xc which are currently fashionable in density functional theory ~DFT!, such as those obtained from the local density approximation ~LDA! or generalized gradient approximations ~GGAs!, all suffer from incorrect asymptotic behavior. In atomic calculations, this leads to substantial overestimations of both the static polarizability and the frequency dependence of this property. In the present paper, it is shown that the errors in atomic static dipole and quadrupole polarizabilities are reduced by almost an order of magnitude, if a recently proposed model potential with correct Coulombic long-range behavior is used. The frequency dependence is improved similarly. The model potential also removes the overestimation in molecular polarizabilities, leading to slight improvements for average molecular polarizabilities and their frequency dependence. For the polarizability anisotropy we find that the model potential results do not improve over the LDA and GGA results. Our method for calculating frequency-dependent molecular response properties within time-dependent DFT, which we described in more detail elsewhere, is summarized.

Calculating frequency-dependent hyperpolarizabilities using time-dependent density functional theory

An accurate determination of frequency-dependent molecular hyperpolarizabilities is at the same time of possible technological importance and theoretically challenging. For large molecules, Hartree–Fock theory was until recently the only available ab initio approach. However, correlation effects are usually very important for this property, which makes it desirable to have a computationally efficient approach in which those effects are (approximately) taken into account. We have recently shown that frequency-dependent hyperpolarizabilities can be efficiently obtained using time-dependent density functional theory. Here, we shall present the necessary theoretical framework and the details of our implementation in the Amsterdam Density Functional program. Special attention will be paid to the use of fit functions for the density and to numerical integration, which are typical of density functional codes. Numerical examples for He, CO, and para-nitroaniline are presented, as evidence for the correctness of the equations and the implementation.

Accurate density functional calculations on frequency-dependent hyperpolarizabilities of small molecules

In this paper we present time-dependent density functional calculations on frequency-dependent first (β) and second (γ) hyperpolarizabilities for the set of small molecules, N2, CO2, CS2, C2H4, NH3, CO, HF, H2O, and CH4, and compare them to Hartree–Fock and correlated ab initio calculations, as well as to experimental results. Both the static hyperpolarizabilities and the frequency dispersion are studied. Three approximations to the exchange-correlation (xc) potential are used: the widely used Local Density Approximation (LDA), the Becke–Lee–Yang–Parr (BLYP) Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA), as well as the asymptotically correct Van Leeuwen–Baerends (LB94) potential. For the functional derivatives of the xc potential the Adiabatic Local Density Approximation (ALDA) is used. We have attempted to estimate the intrinsic quality of these methods by using large basis sets, augmented with several diffuse functions, yielding good agreement with recent numerical static LDA results. Contrary to claims whic...