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arXiv:cond-mat/0406344 · Physical Review B

Excitonic effects in time-dependent density-functional theory: An analytically solvable model

Ralf Stubner, I. V. Tokatly, Oleg Pankratov

Published Dec 23, 2004• 43 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate the description of excitonic effects within time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT). The exchange-correlation kernel ${f}_{xc}$ introduced in TDDFT allows a clear separation of quasiparticle and excitonic effects. Using a diagrammatic representation for ${f}_{xc}$, we express its excitonic part ${f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}$ in terms of the effective vertex function $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$. The latter fulfills an integral equation that thereby establishes the exact correspondence between TDDFT and the standard many-body approach based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE). The diagrammatic structure of the kernel in the equation for $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ suggests the possibility of strong cancellation effects. Should the cancellation take place, already the first-order approximation to ${f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}$ is sufficient. A potential advantage of TDDFT over the many-body BSE method is thus dependent on the efficiency of the above-quoted cancellation. We explicitly verify this for an analytically solvable two-dimensional two-band model. The calculations confirm that the low-order ${f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}$ perfectly describes the bound exciton as well as the excitonic effects in the continuous spectrum in a wide range of the electron-hole coupling strength.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.70.245119

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We investigate the description of excitonic effects within time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT). The exchange-correlation kernel fxc{f}_{xc}fxc​ introduced in TDDFT allows a clear separation of quasiparticle and excitonic effects. Using a diagrammatic representation for fxc{f}_{xc}fxc​, we express its excitonic part fxcEx{f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}fxcEx​ in terms of the effective vertex function \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ. The latter fulfills an integral equation that thereby establishes the exact correspondence between TDDFT and the standard many-body approach based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE). The diagrammatic structure of the kernel in the equation for \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ suggests the possibility of strong cancellation effects. Should the cancellation take place, already the first-order approximation to fxcEx{f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}fxcEx​ is sufficient. A potential advantage of TDDFT over the many-body BSE method is thus dependent on the efficiency of the above-quoted cancellation. We explicitly verify this for an analytically solvable two-dimensional two-band model. The calculations confirm that the low-order fxcEx{f\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}}_{xc}^{\mathrm{Ex}}fxcEx​ perfectly describes the bound exciton as well as the excitonic effects in the continuous spectrum in a wide range of the electron-hole coupling strength.
We derive a simplified Bethe–Salpeter equation for calculating optical absorption based on the assumption of a local electron–hole interaction. The original four-point equation for the kernel is reduced to a two-point one. A connection to the exchange–correlation kernel in time-dependent density functional theory can be established. The resulting fxc is found to be -W/2 where W contains only the short-range (local) part of the Coulomb screened interaction. This simple approximation was successfully applied to optical absorption spectra of some excitonic crystals, reproducing not only the continuum excitons but also the bound ones.
The density-functional theory (DFT) is one of the most important ab initio methods for calculating properties of many-body systems. The success of DFT is based on the Kohn-Sham (KS) method and the approximations for the exchange-correlation (xc) effects. These approximations are well understood. However, DFT is first and foremost a theory for the ground state. It is very difficult to obtain properties of excited states. The time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) can overcome this restriction and in the linear-response regime can give access to the properties of excited states. However, the xc effects, which are contained in the xc kernel f_xc , have to be approximated. The approximations for f_xc are not well understood up to now. Green-functions-based conventional many-body theory (MBT) is an alternative approach to the many-body problem. Especially when combined with diagrammatic techniques, MBT allows to derive physically motivated approximations. This work investigates the use of diagrammatic techniques from MBT for TDDFT . The aim of the investigations is to contribute to the development, testing, and understanding of the approximations involved in the time-dependent case. It is shown that it is possible to expand the xc kernel in a diagrammatic series. Explicit diagrammatic rules for constructing f_xc in any order of the perturbation theory are given. The derived diagrammatic rules enable us to study the analytic properties of f_xc. It is shown that f_xc is finite at KS excitation energies in every order of the perturbation theory. If this were not the case, finite-order approximations to f_xc would not give sensible results for the kernel which plays the role of a mass operator connecting the KS density--density response function with the exact density--density response function. However, there is one important difference between f_xc and the self-energy, the latter playing the role of the mass operator connecting free and exact Green function. This becomes apparent when the perturbative expansion for f_xc is used to calculate the correction to the KS excitation energies. This correction is obtained up to the second-order with respect to the interaction and with respect to one- and two-particle irreducible elements. It is shown that if a perturbative approximation for f_xc is used, the correction to the KS excitation energies has to be calculated using a consistent approach based on the same order of perturbation theory for both quantities. One of the most promising applications of TDDFT in the linear response regime is the calculation of electronic excitation spectra of solids, where TDDFT could replace the computationally expensive solution of the BSE , which is normally used for describing the excitonic correlations. It is shown that the xc kernel can be separated into a quasiparticle and a excitonic part in an exact and unambiguous way. The diagrammatic rules derived for f_xc apply to these parts separately. This allows us to express the excitonic part in terms of the three-point function, for which an integral equation is derived. This integral equation is similar to the BSE and gives the exact translation of the BSE into the TDDFT language. There exists the possibility of cancellation effects in the kernel of the integral equation. If these effects are effective, a first-order approximation to the excitonic f_xc is sufficient. The cancellation effects in the equation for Lambda are explicitly studied for a two-band model semiconductor. Using a general short-range interaction between the quasiparticles (QPs) all relevant equations are solved analytically. It is shown that the cancellation is most effective directly at the band-gap energy. Consequently, the first-order and the exact excitonic f_xc are very similar close to the band-gap energy for all interaction strengths. For a weak interaction the first-order approximation to the excitonic f_xc describes the different excitonic correlations in the density©density response function very well. Qualitatively similar results are found when the QPs interact via the long-ranged Coulomb interaction.
We present some details of our recently-proposed Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory (TDDFT) for strongly-correlated materials in which the exchange-correlation (XC) kernel is derived from the charge susceptibility obtained using Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (the TDDFT + DMFT approach). We proceed with deriving the expression for the XC kernel for the one-band Hubbard model by solving DMFT equations via two approaches, the Hirsch–Fye Quantum Monte Carlo (HF-QMC) and an approximate low-cost perturbation theory approach, and demonstrate that the latter gives results that are comparable to the exact HF-QMC solution. Furthermore, through a variety of applications, we propose a simple analytical formula for the XC kernel. Additionally, we use the exact and approximate kernels to examine the nonhomogeneous ultrafast response of two systems: a one-band Hubbard model and a Mott insulator YTiO3. We show that the frequency dependence of the kernel, i.e., memory effects, is important for dynamics at the femtosecond timescale. We also conclude that strong correlations lead to the presence of beats in the time-dependent electric conductivity in YTiO3, a feature that could be tested experimentally and that could help validate the few approximations used in our formulation. We conclude by proposing an algorithm for the generalization of the theory to non-linear response.
This chapter presents various techniques from many-body theory to construct time-dependent exchange-correlation (xc) functionals. The first section introduces a perturbation theory along the so-called adiabatic connection. This leads to a perturbative expansion of the xc potential, with exact exchange representing the lowest order. The following section introduces nonequilibrium Green's functions along the Keldysh contour. A Keldysh action principle is formulated which yields a formally exact representation of the time-dependent xc potential. As an alternative, the xc potential is expressed through the so-called Sham-Schlüter equation. The third section establishes a connection between the xc kernels of time-dependent density-functional theory in linear response and many-body perturbation theory. A diagrammatic expansion of the xc kernel is given. Finally, an expression for the xc kernel is derived starting from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. This xc kernel gives excellent agreement with experimental optical absorption spectra of insulators, including excitonic features.
For the calculation of neutral excitations, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is an exact reformulation of the many-body time-dependent Schrödinger equation, based on knowledge of the density instead of the many-body wavefunction. The density can be determined in an efficient scheme by solving one-particle non-interacting Schrödinger equations—the Kohn–Sham equations. The complication of the problem is hidden in the—unknown—time-dependent exchange and correlation potential that appears in the Kohn–Sham equations and for which it is essential to find good approximations. Many approximations have been suggested and tested for finite systems, where even the very simple adiabatic local-density approximation (ALDA) has often proved to be successful. In the case of solids, ALDA fails to reproduce optical absorption spectra, which are instead well described by solving the Bethe–Salpeter equation of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). On the other hand, ALDA can lead to excellent results for loss functions (at vanishing and finite momentum transfer). In view of this and thanks to recent successful developments of improved linear-response kernels derived from MBPT, TDDFT is today considered a promising alternative to MBPT for the calculation of electronic spectra, even for solids. After reviewing the fundamentals of TDDFT within linear response, we discuss different approaches and a variety of applications to extended systems.
We consider an analytically solvable model of two interacting electrons that allows for the calculation of the exact exchange-correlation kernel of time-dependent density functional theory. This kernel, as well as the corresponding density response function, is studied in the limit of large repulsive interactions between the electrons and we give analytical results for these quantities as an asymptotic expansion in powers of the square root of the interaction strength. We find that in the strong interaction limit the three leading terms in the expansion of the kernel act instantaneously while memory terms only appear in the next orders. We further derive an alternative expansion for the kernel in the strong interaction limit on the basis of the theory developed previously [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 18, 21092 (2016)] using the formalism of strictly correlated electrons in the adiabatic approximation. We find that the first two leading terms in this series, corresponding to the strictly correlated limit and its zero-point vibration correction, coincide with the two leading terms of the exact expansion. We finally analyze the spatial nonlocality of these terms and show when the adiabatic approximation breaks down. The ability to reproduce the exact kernel in the strong interaction limit indicates that the adiabatic strictly correlated electron formalism is useful for studying the density response and excitation properties of other systems with strong electronic interactions.