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Analytical Excited-State Gradients and Derivative Couplings in TDDFT with Minimal Auxiliary Basis Set Approximation
Zhichen Pu1, Xiaojie Wu1, Yuanheng Wang1
1Bytedance Seed, Beijing 100098, China.
This study introduces an efficient method for calculating excited-state gradients and derivative couplings using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT-ris), achieving a 2-3x speedup. The TDDFT-ris approach offers reliable approximations for molecular calculations, with minor errors in specific cases.
Area of Science:
- Quantum chemistry
- Computational chemistry
- Theoretical chemistry
Background:
- Calculating excited-state gradients and derivative couplings with time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is computationally intensive.
- An efficient TDDFT variant, TDDFT with resolution of the identity and a minimal auxiliary basis (TDDFT-ris), accelerates excitation energy calculations.
- Analytical derivatives for TDDFT-ris have not been previously reported.
Purpose of the Study:
- To implement analytical excited-state gradients and derivative couplings within the TDDFT-ris framework.
- To assess the computational efficiency and accuracy of the TDDFT-ris method for excited-state calculations.
- To evaluate the performance of TDDFT-ris for gradient-dependent applications.
Main Methods:
- Implementation of analytical excited-state gradients and derivative couplings.
- Utilizing the TDDFT with resolution of the identity and a minimal auxiliary basis (TDDFT-ris) approach.
- Benchmark calculations on medium-sized organic molecules.
Main Results:
- Achieved a two- to 3-fold speedup for excited-state gradients and derivative couplings compared to standard TDDFT.
- TDDFT-ris provides reliable approximations for geometry optimizations and emission energy calculations.
- Derivative couplings between nearly degenerate states showed noticeable errors.
Conclusions:
- The TDDFT-ris method offers a significant computational speedup for excited-state calculations.
- TDDFT-ris is a reliable approximation for most gradient-dependent applications in computational chemistry.
- Further refinement may be needed for derivative couplings involving nearly degenerate electronic states.
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