Applying the density matrix renormalization group (DRMG) method to a nonempirical valence bond (VB) model Hamiltonian, we studied polyacene oligomers of different lengths in the strong electron correlation limit. Geometrical optimizations were performed for the lowest singlet and triplet states of oligomers up to [40]-acene, and a convergence of the bond lengths toward the polymer limit is observed in the interior of the oligomer. For large oligomers, as well as for the polymer, the ground state can be reasonably determined to be a singlet. Furthermore, a high similarity between the singlet geometries and triplet geometries suggests an open-shell character for the singlet ground state. A reasonable speculation of the soliton-antisoliton pair character of the singlet ground state was supported by a spin distribution analysis of the triplet state wave function of large oligomers, with each of the two solitons being broadly delocalized over the upper or bottom edge of the oligomers, respectively.
We have carried out symmetrized density-matrix renormalization-group calculations to study the nature of excited states of long polyacene oligomers within a Pariser-Parr-Pople Hamiltonian. We have used the
C2 symmetry, the electron-hole symmetry, and the spin parity of the system in our calculations. We find that there is a crossover in the lowest dipole forbidden two-photon state and the lowest dipole allowed excited state with size of the oligomer. In the long system limit, the two-photon state lies below the lowest dipole allowed excited state. The triplet state lies well below the two-photon state and energetically does not correspond to its description as being made up of two triplets. These results are in agreement with the general trends in linear conjugated polymers. However, unlike in linear polyenes wherein the two-photon state is a localized excitation, we find that in polyacenes, the two-photon excitation is spread out over the system. We have doped the systems with a hole and an electron and have calculated the charge excitation gap. Using the charge gap and the optical gap, we estimate the binding energy of the ${1}^{1}{B}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ exciton to be 2.09 eV. We have also studied doubly doped polyacenes and find that the bipolaron in these systems, to be composed of two separated polarons, as indicated by the calculated charge-density profile and charge-charge correlation function. We have studied bond orders in various states in order to get an idea of the excited state geometry of the system. We find that the ground state, the triplet state, the dipole allowed state, and the polaron excitations correspond to lengthening of the rung bonds in the interior of the oligomer while the two-photon excitation corresponds to the rung bond lengths having two maxima in the system.
We present a detailed investigation of the acene series using high-level wave function theory. Our ab initio density matrix renormalization group algorithm has enabled us to carry out complete active space calculations on the acenes from napthalene to dodecacene correlating the full pi-valence space. While we find that the ground state is a singlet for all chain lengths, examination of several measures of radical character, including the natural orbitals, effective number of unpaired electrons, and various correlation functions, suggests that the longer acene ground states are polyradical in nature.
The dimerization of polyacetylene is studied using a distance-dependent Hubbard Hamiltonian for the valence $\ensuremath{\pi}$ electrons and approximating $\ensuremath{\sigma}$-electron contributions by a sum of pair interactions ${E}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}{(r}_{\mathrm{ij}})$. The $\ensuremath{\pi}$-electron Coulomb repulsion
U is taken to be independent of the C-C distances
rij and is varied systematically from the uncorrelated or H\"uckel limit all over to the strongly correlated or Heisenberg regime. For each value of
U, ${E}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}{(r}_{\mathrm{ij}})$, and the $\ensuremath{\pi}$-electron hopping integral
t(rij) are fitted to reproduce ab initio results on the ground-state and first-excited-state energy of the ethylene molecule. The one-dimensional many-body problem is solved numerically by means of the density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) method. The ground-state energy
E of the infinite open polymer is obtained by extrapolation considering chains of up to 300 atoms. The dimerization $\ensuremath{\delta}{=(r}_{i,i+1}\ensuremath{-}{r}_{i\ensuremath{-}1,i})/2$ and the average bond length ${R=(r}_{i,i+1}{+r}_{i\ensuremath{-}1,i})/2$ are determined by minimizing
E. While
R is not significantly affected by the value of
U, $\ensuremath{\delta}$ shows a remarkable nonmonotonic behavior. The differences between the delocalized regime, small
U/t, and spin-Peierls behavior, large
U/t, are discussed. The convergence properties of the DMRG algorithm are analyzed as a function of
U, $\ensuremath{\delta}$, and the number states kept at each RG step. Criteria are examined in order to control the accuracy of the DMRG calculations in both weakly and strongly correlated situations.
We have carried out density-matrix renormalization group calculations on the ground state of long polyacene oligomers within a Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) Hamiltonian. The PPP model includes long-range electron correlations which are required for physically realistic modeling of conjugated polymers. We have obtained the ground-state energy as a function of the dimerization $\ensuremath{\delta}$ and various correlation functions and structure factors for $\ensuremath{\delta}=0$. From energetics, we find that the nature of the Peierls' instability in polyacene is conditional and strong electron correlations enhance the dimerization. The cis form of the distortion is favored over the trans form. However, from the analysis of correlation functions and associated structure factors, we find that polyacene is not susceptible to the formation of a bond order wave, spin-density wave, or a charge-density wave in the ground state.
The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a powerful method to treat static correlation. Here we present an inexpensive way to calculate correlation energy starting from a DMRG wave function using pair-density functional theory (PDFT). We applied this new approach, called DMRG-PDFT, to study singlet-triplet gaps in polyacenes and polyacetylenes that require active spaces larger than the feasibility limit of the conventional complete active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method. The results match reasonably well with the most reliable literature values and have only a moderate dependence on the compression of the initial DMRG wave function. Furthermore, DMRG-PDFT is significantly less expensive than other commonly applied ways of adding additional correlation to DMRG, such as DMRG followed by multireference perturbation theory or multireference configuration interaction.