The method of dispersion correction as an add-on to standard Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT-D) has been refined regarding higher accuracy, broader range of applicability, and less empiricism. The main new ingredients are atom-pairwise specific dispersion coefficients and cutoff radii that are both computed from first principles. The coefficients for new eighth-order dispersion terms are computed using established recursion relations. System (geometry) dependent information is used for the first time in a DFT-D type approach by employing the new concept of fractional coordination numbers (CN). They are used to interpolate between dispersion coefficients of atoms in different chemical environments. The method only requires adjustment of two global parameters for each density functional, is asymptotically exact for a gas of weakly interacting neutral atoms, and easily allows the computation of atomic forces. Three-body nonadditivity terms are considered. The method has been assessed on standard benchmark sets for inter- and intramolecular noncovalent interactions with a particular emphasis on a consistent description of light and heavy element systems. The mean absolute deviations for the S22 benchmark set of noncovalent interactions for 11 standard density functionals decrease by 15%-40% compared to the previous (already accurate) DFT-D version. Spectacular improvements are found for a tripeptide-folding model and all tested metallic systems. The rectification of the long-range behavior and the use of more accurate C(6) coefficients also lead to a much better description of large (infinite) systems as shown for graphene sheets and the adsorption of benzene on an Ag(111) surface. For graphene it is found that the inclusion of three-body terms substantially (by about 10%) weakens the interlayer binding. We propose the revised DFT-D method as a general tool for the computation of the dispersion energy in molecules and solids of any kind with DFT and related (low-cost) electronic structure methods for large systems.

http://dns2.asia.edu.tw/~ysho/YSHO-English/1000%20WC/PDF/J%20Che%20Phy132,%20154104.pdf

A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu

Gaussian basis sets of quadruple zeta valence quality for Rb-Rn are presented, as well as bases of split valence and triple zeta valence quality for H-Rn. The latter were obtained by (partly) modifying bases developed previously. A large set of more than 300 molecules representing (nearly) all elements-except lanthanides-in their common oxidation states was used to assess the quality of the bases all across the periodic table. Quantities investigated were atomization energies, dipole moments and structure parameters for Hartree-Fock, density functional theory and correlated methods, for which we had chosen Moller-Plesset perturbation theory as an example. Finally recommendations are given which type of basis set is used best for a certain level of theory and a desired quality of results.

Balanced basis sets of split valence, triple zeta valence and quadruple zeta valence quality for H to Rn: Design and assessment of accuracy

It is shown by an extensive benchmark on molecular energy data that the mathematical form of the damping function in DFT-D methods has only a minor impact on the quality of the results. For 12 different functionals, a standard "zero-damping" formula and rational damping to finite values for small interatomic distances according to Becke and Johnson (BJ-damping) has been tested. The same (DFT-D3) scheme for the computation of the dispersion coefficients is used. The BJ-damping requires one fit parameter more for each functional (three instead of two) but has the advantage of avoiding repulsive interatomic forces at shorter distances. With BJ-damping better results for nonbonded distances and more clear effects of intramolecular dispersion in four representative molecular structures are found. For the noncovalently-bonded structures in the S22 set, both schemes lead to very similar intermolecular distances. For noncovalent interaction energies BJ-damping performs slightly better but both variants can be recommended in general. The exception to this is Hartree-Fock that can be recommended only in the BJ-variant and which is then close to the accuracy of corrected GGAs for non-covalent interactions. According to the thermodynamic benchmarks BJ-damping is more accurate especially for medium-range electron correlation problems and only small and practically insignificant double-counting effects are observed. It seems to provide a physically correct short-range behavior of correlation/dispersion even with unmodified standard functionals. In any case, the differences between the two methods are much smaller than the overall dispersion effect and often also smaller than the influence of the underlying density functional.

Effect of the damping function in dispersion corrected density functional theory

We report re-optimization of a recently proposed long-range corrected (LC) hybrid density functional [J.-D. Chai and M. Head-Gordon, J. Chem. Phys., 2008, 128, 084106] to include empirical atom–atom dispersion corrections. The resulting functional, ωB97X-D yields satisfactory accuracy for thermochemistry, kinetics, and non-covalent interactions. Tests show that for non-covalent systems, ωB97X-D shows slight improvement over other empirical dispersion-corrected density functionals, while for covalent systems and kinetics it performs noticeably better. Relative to our previous functionals, such as ωB97X, the new functional is significantly superior for non-bonded interactions, and very similar in performance for bonded interactions.

/pdf/long-range-corrected-hybrid-density-functionals-with-damped-44ti6za9f3.pdf

Long-range corrected hybrid density functionals with damped atom–atom dispersion corrections

Long-Range Corrected Hybrid Density Functionals with Damped Atom-Atom Dispersion Corrections Jeng-Da Chai ∗ and Martin Head-Gordon † Department of Chemistry, University of California and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA (Dated: June 14, 2008) We report re-optimization of a recently proposed long-range corrected (LC) hybrid density func- tionals [J.-D. Chai and M. Head-Gordon, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 084106 (2008)] to include empirical atom-atom dispersion corrections. The resulting functional, ωB97X-D yields satisfactory accuracy for thermochemistry, kinetics, and non-covalent interactions. Tests show that for non-covalent sys- tems, ωB97X-D shows slight improvement over other empirical dispersion-corrected density func- tionals, while for covalent systems and kinetics, it performs noticeably better. Relative to our previous functionals, such as ωB97X, the new functional is signiﬁcantly superior for non-bonded interactions, and very similar in performance for bonded interactions. I. INTRODUCTION Due to its favorable cost-to-performance ratio, Kohn- Sham density-functional theory (KS-DFT) [1, 2] has be- come the most popular electronic structure theory for large-scale ground-state systems [3–5]. Its extension for treating excited-state systems [6, 7], time-dependent den- sity functional theory (TDDFT), has also been developed to the stage where it is now very widely used. The essential ingredient of KS-DFT, the exchange- correlation energy functional E xc , remains unknown and needs to be approximated. Semi-local gradient-corrected density functionals, though successful in many applica- tions, lead to qualitative failures in some circumstances, where the accurate treatment of non-locality of exchange- correlation hole becomes crucial. These situations occur mostly in the asymptotic regions of molecular systems, such as spurious self-interaction eﬀects upon dissociation [8, 9] and dramatic failures for long-range charge-transfer excitations [10–12]. Widely used hybrid density function- als, like B3LYP [13, 14], do not qualitatively resolve these problems. These self-interaction errors can be qualitatively re- solved using the long-range corrected (LC) hybrid density functionals [15, 16, 18], which employ 100% Hartree-Fock (HF) exchange for long-range electron-electron interac- tions. This is accomplished by a partition of unity, using erf(ωr)/r for long-range (treated by HF exchange) and erfc(ωr)/r for short-range (treated by an exchange func- tional), with the parameter ω controlling the partition- ing. Over the past ﬁve years, the LC hybrid scheme has been attracting increasing attention [15] since its compu- tational cost is comparable with standard hybrid func- tionals [13]. However, LC functionals have tended to be inferior to the best hybrids for properties such as ther- mochemistry. ∗ Electronic † Author address: jdchai@berkeley.edu to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic address: mhg@cchem.berkeley.edu Recently we have improved the overall accuracy at- tainable with the LC functionals by using a systematic optimization procedure [18]. One important conclusion is that optimizing LC and hybrid functionals with identical numbers of parameters in their GGA exchange and cor- relation terms leads to noticeably better results for all properties using the LC form. The resulting LC func- tional is called ωB97. Further statistically signiﬁcant improvement results from re-optimizing the entire func- tional with one extra parameter corresponding to an ad- justable fraction of short-range exact exchange, deﬁning the ωB97X functional. Independent test sets covering thermochemistry and non-covalent interactions support these conclusions. However, problems associated with the lack of non-locality of the correlation hole, such as the lack of dispersion interactions (London forces), still remain, as the semi-local correlation functionals cannot capture long-range correlation eﬀects [19, 20]. There have been signiﬁcant eﬀorts to develop a frame- work that can account for long-range dispersion eﬀects within DFT. Zaremba and Kohn (ZK) [21] derived an exact expression for the second-order dispersion energy in terms of the exact density-density response functions of the two separate systems. To obtain a tractable non- local dispersion functional, Dobson and Dinite (DD) [22] made local density approximations to the ZK response functions. DD’s non-local correlation functional was ob- tained independently [23] by modifying the eﬀective den- sity deﬁned in the earlier work of Rapcewicz and Ashcroft Starting from the formally exact expression of KS- DFT, the adiabatic connection ﬂuctuation-dissipation theorem (ACFDT), for the ground-state exchange- correlation energy, Langreth and co-workers [25] devel- oped a so-called van der Waals density functional (vdW- DF) by making a series of reasonable approximations to yield a computationally tractable scheme. Recently, Becke and Johnson (BJ) developed a series of post-HF correlation models with a novel treatment for dispersion interactions based on the exchange-hole dipole moment [26]. The origin of dispersion claimed in the BJ models was recently questioned by Alonso, and A.

Long-Range Corrected Hybrid Density Functionals with Damped Atom-Atom Dispersion Corrections

A series of correlation consistent basis sets have been developed for the post-d group 16–18 elements in conjunction with small-core relativistic pseudopotentials of the energy-consistent variety. The latter were adjusted to multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock data based on the Dirac–Coulomb–Breit Hamiltonian. The outer-core (n−1)spd shells are explicitly treated together with the nsp valence shell with these PPs. The accompanying cc-pVnZ-PP and aug-cc-pVnZ-PP basis sets range in size from DZ to 5Z quality and yield systematic convergence of both Hartree–Fock and correlated total energies. In addition to the calculation of atomic electron affinities and dipole polarizabilities of the rare gas atoms, numerous molecular benchmark calculations (HBr, HI, HAt, Br2, I2, At2, SiSe, SiTe, SiPo, KrH+, XeH+, and RnH+) are also reported at the coupled cluster level of theory. For the purposes of comparison, all-electron calculations using the Douglas–Kroll–Hess Hamiltonian have also been carried out for the haloge...

http://tyr0.chem.wsu.edu/~kipeters/Pages/pdfs/JCP119.11113.2003.pdf

Systematically convergent basis sets with relativistic pseudopotentials. II. Small-core pseudopotentials and correlation consistent basis sets for the post-d group 16–18 elements

A previously proposed scheme for coupling short-range (sr) density functionals with wavefunction-based long-range (lr)
				ab initio methods has been extended by (a) developing a new gradient-corrected sr functional of the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) type and (b) introducing coupled-cluster (CC) approaches (CC with single and double excitations (CCSD), and with additional perturbative triples (CCSD(T))) at the ab initio side. The results show that mixing-in of lr-ab initio correlation helps to remove deficiencies of currently used density functionals for the treatment of van-der-Waals interactions. Compared to full ab initio calculations, the basis set dependence is weaker so that the accuracy of the mixed results surpasses that of the ab initio ones for basis sets of triple-zeta quality.

A short-range gradient-corrected density functional in long-range coupled-cluster calculations for rare gas dimers

http://www.lct.jussieu.fr/pagesperso/gori/Papers/goll.pdf

A short-range gradient-corrected spin density functional in combination with long-range coupled-cluster methods: Application to alkali-metal rare-gas dimers

The formation of coherent vibrational wave packets in the electronic ground state of neutral molecules in intense ultrashort laser pulses and their subsequent detection by means of recently developed pump-probe experiments are discussed. The wave packet formation is due to the pronounced dependence of the strong-field ionization rate on the internuclear distance. This leads to a deformation of the initial wave function due to an internuclear-distance dependent depletion. The phenomenon is demonstrated with a time-dependent wave packet study for molecular hydrogen.

Formation of ground-state vibrational wave packets in intense ultrashort laser pulses.

Short-range DFT/long-range ab initio methods allow for a combination of the weak basis-set dependency of DFT with an accurate ab initio treatment of long-range effects like van der Waals interaction. In order to improve existing short-range LDA and GGA density functionals, we developed a TPSS-like short-range meta-GGA exchange-correlation functional and checked its performance in long-range CCSD(T) calculations for thermodynamical properties of the G2 set of molecules.

Erich Goll

Papers

Systematically convergent basis sets with relativistic pseudopotentials. II. Small-core pseudopotentials and correlation consistent basis sets for the post-d group 16–18 elements

A short-range gradient-corrected density functional in long-range coupled-cluster calculations for rare gas dimers

A short-range gradient-corrected spin density functional in combination with long-range coupled-cluster methods: Application to alkali-metal rare-gas dimers

Formation of ground-state vibrational wave packets in intense ultrashort laser pulses.

Development and assessment of a short-range meta-GGA functional.