Divide-and-conquer self-consistent field calculation for open-shell systems: Implementation and application

Excitation configuration analysis for divide-and-conquer excited-state calculation method using dynamical polarizability

The authors previously developed a divide-and-conquer (DC)-based non-local excited-state calculation method for large systems using dynamical polarizability [Nakai and Yoshikawa, J. Chem. Phys. 146, 124123 (2017)]. This method evaluates the excitation energies and oscillator strengths using information on the dynamical polarizability poles. This article proposes a novel analysis of the previously developed method to obtain further configuration information on excited states, including excitation and de-excitation coefficients of each excitation configuration. Numerical applications to simple molecules, such as ethylene, hydrogen molecule, ammonia, and pyridazine, confirmed that the proposed analysis could accurately reproduce the excitation and de-excitation coefficients. The combination with the DC scheme enables both the local and non-local excited states of large systems with an excited nature to be treated.

Toward Accurate Prediction of Ion Mobility in Organic Semiconductors by Atomistic Simulation

A multiscale scheme (MLMS: Multi-Level Multi-Scale) to predict the ion mobility (μ) of amorphous organic semiconductors is proposed, which was successfully applied to the hole mobility predictions of 14 organic systems. An inverse relationship between μ and reorganization energy is observed due to local polaronic distortions. Another moderate inverse correlation between μ and distribution of site energy change exists, representing the effects of geometric flexibility. The former and the latter represent the intramolecular and intermolecular geometric effects, respectively. In addition, a linear correlation between transfer coupling and μ is observed, showing the importance of orbital overlaps between monomers. Especially, the highest hole mobility of C6-2TTN is due to its large transfer coupling. On the other hand, another high hole mobility of CBP turned out to come from the high first neighbor density (ρ_FND) of its first self-solvation, emphasizing the proper description of amorphous structural configurations with a sufficiently large number of monomers. In general, systems with either unusually high transfer coupling or high first neighbor density can potentially have high μ regardless of geometric effects. Especially, the newly suggested design parameter, ρ_FND, is pointing to a new direction as opposed to the traditional π-conjugation strategy.

Divide-and-Conquer Linear-Scaling Quantum Chemical Computations

Fragmentation and embedding schemes are of great importance when applying quantum-chemical calculations to more complex and attractive targets. The divide-and-conquer (DC)-based quantum-chemical model is a fragmentation scheme that can be connected to embedding schemes. This feature article explains several DC-based schemes developed by the authors over the last two decades, which was inspired by the pioneering study of DC self-consistent field (SCF) method by Yang and Lee (J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 103, 5674-5678). First, the theoretical aspects of the DC-based SCF, electron correlation, excited-state, and nuclear orbital methods are described, followed by the two-component relativistic theory, quantum-mechanical molecular dynamics simulation, and the introduction of three programs, including DC-based schemes. Illustrative applications confirmed the accuracy and feasibility of the DC-based schemes.

Quantum-Mechanical Molecular Dynamics Simulations on Secondary Proton Transfer in Bacteriorhodopsin Using Realistic Models

Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) transports a proton from intracellular to extracellular (EC) sites through five proton transfers. The second proton transfer is the release of an excess proton stored in BR into the EC medium, and an atomistic understanding of this whole process has remained unexplored due to its ubiquitous environment. Here, fully quantum mechanical (QM) molecular dynamics (MD) and metadynamics (MTD) simulations for this process were performed at the divide-and-conquer density-functional tight-binding level using realistic models (∼50000 and ∼20000 atoms) based on the time-resolved photointermediate structures from an X-ray free electron laser. Regarding the proton storage process, the QM-MD/MTD simulations confirmed the Glu-shared mechanism, in which an excess proton is stored between Glu194 and Glu204, and clarified that the activation occurs by localizing the proton at Glu204 in the photocycle. Furthermore, the QM-MD/MTD simulations elucidated a release pathway from Glu204 through Ser193 to the EC water molecules and clarified that the proton release starts at ∼250 μs. In the ubiquitous proton diffusion in the EC medium, the transient proton receptors predicted experimentally were assigned to carboxylates in Glu9 and Glu74. Large-scale QM-MD/MTD simulations beyond the conventional sizes, which provided the above findings and confirmations, were possible by adopting our Dcdftbmd program.

Trajectory Surface Hopping Approach to Condensed-Phase Nonradiative Relaxation Dynamics Using Divide-and-Conquer Spin-Flip Time-Dependent Density-Functional Tight Binding

Nonradiative relaxation of excited molecules is central to many crucial issues in photochemistry. Condensed phases are typical contexts in which such problems are considered, and the nonradiative relaxation dynamics are expected to be significantly affected by interactions with the environment, for example, a solvent. We developed a nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulation technique that can treat the nonradiative relaxation and explicitly include the environment in the calculations without a heavy computational burden. Specifically, we combined trajectory surface hopping with Tully's fewest-switches algorithm, a tight-binding approximated version of spin-flip time-dependent density-functional theory, and divide-and-conquer (DC) spatial fragmentation scheme. Numerical results showed that this method can treat systems with thousands of atoms within reasonable computational resources, and the error arising from DC fragmentation is negligibly small. Using this method, we obtained molecular insights into the solvent dependence of the photoexcited-state dynamics of trans-azobenzene, which demonstrate the importance of the environment for condensed-phase nonradiative relaxation.

Quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations of polaron formation in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite

Polaron formation in a halide perovskite is analyzed via nanometre-scale quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations.

GPU-Accelerated Large-Scale Excited-State Simulation Based on Divide-and-Conquer Time-Dependent Density-Functional Tight-Binding

The present study implemented the divide-and-conquer time-dependent density-functional tight-binding (DC-TDDFTB) code on a graphical processing unit (GPU). The DC method, which is a linear-scaling scheme, divides a total system into several fragments. By separately solving local equations in individual fragments, the DC method could reduce slow central processing unit (CPU)-GPU memory access, as well as computational cost, and avoid shortfalls of GPU memory. Numerical applications confirmed that the present code on GPU significantly accelerated the TDDFTB calculations, while maintaining accuracy. Furthermore, the DC-TDDFTB simulation of 2-acetylindan-1,3-dione displays excited-state intramolecular proton transfer and provides reasonable absorption and fluorescence energies with the corresponding experimental values. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The divide-and-conquer second-order proton propagator method based on nuclear orbital plus molecular orbital theory for the efficient computation of proton binding energies

An efficient computational method to evaluate the binding energies of many protons in large systems was developed.

On the separability of the extended molecule: Constructing the best localized molecular orbitals for an organic molecule bridging two model electrodes

Based on a quantum chemical valence formalism that allows the rigorous construction of best-localized molecular orbitals on specific parts of an extended system, we examined the separability of individual components of model systems relevant to the description of electron transport in molecular devices. We started by examining how to construct the maximally localized electronic density at the tip of a realistic model of a gold electrode. By varying the number of gold atoms included in the local region where to project the total electronic density, we quantitatively assess how many molecular orbitals are entirely localized in that region. We then considered a 1,4-benzene-di-thiol molecule connected to two model gold electrodes and examined how to localize the electronic density of the total system in the extended molecule, a fractional entity comprising the organic molecule plus an increasing number of the closest metal atoms. We were able to identify in a rigorous manner the existence of three physically different electronic populations, each one corresponding to a distinct set of molecular orbitals. First, there are those entirely localized in the extended molecule, then there is a second group of those completely distributed in the gold atoms external to that region, and, finally, there are those delocalized over the entire system. This latter group can be associated to the shared electronic population between the extended molecule and the rest of the system. We suggest that the treatment here presented could be useful in the theoretical analysis of the electronic transport in nanodevices whenever the use of localized molecular states are required by the physics of the specific problem, such as in cases of weak coupling and super-exchange limits.

Open-shell pair interaction energy decomposition analysis (PIEDA): formulation and application to the hydrogen abstraction in tripeptides

An open-shell extension of the pair interaction energy decomposition analysis (PIEDA) within the framework of the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method is developed. The open-shell PIEDA method allows the analysis of inter- and intramolecular interactions in terms of electrostatic, exchange-repulsion, charge-transfer, dispersion, and optional polarization energies for molecular systems with a radical or high-spin fragment. Taking into account the low computational cost and scalability of the FMO and PIEDA methods, the new scheme provides a means to characterize the stabilization of radical and open-shell sites in biologically relevant species. The open-shell PIEDA is applied to the characterization of intramolecular interactions in capped trialanine upon hydrogen abstraction (HA) at various sites on the peptide. Hydrogen abstraction reaction is the first step in the oxidative pathway initiated by reactive oxygen or nitrogen species, associated with oxidative stress. It is found that HA results in significant geometrical reorganization of the trialanine peptide. Depending on the HA site, terminal interactions in the radical fold conformers may become weaker or stronger compared to the parent molecule, and often change the character of the non-covalent bonding from amide stacking to hydrogen bonding.