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Adiabatic connection models (ACMs), which interpolate between the limits of weak and strong interaction, are powerful tools to build accurate exchange-correlation functionals. If the exact weak-interaction expansion from second-order perturbation theory is included, a self-consistent implementation of these functionals is challenging and still absent in the literature. In this work we fill this gap by presenting a fully self-consistent-field (SCF) implementation of some popular ACM functionals. While using second-order perturbation theory at weak interactions, we have also introduced new generalised gradient approximations (GGA's), beyond the usual point-charge-plus-continuum model, for the first two leading terms at strong interactions, which are crucial to ensure robustness and reliability. We then assess the SCF-ACM functionals for molecular systems and for prototypical strong-correlation problems. We find that they perform well for both the total energy and the electronic density and that the impact of SCF orbitals is directly connected to the accuracy of the ACM functional form. For the H$_2$ dissociation the SCF-ACM functionals yield significant improvements with respect to standard functionals, also thanks to the use of the new GGA's for the strong-coupling functionals., Comment: 40 pages, 6 figures

Plasmonic systems, such as metal nanoparticles, are widely used in different areas of application, going from biology to photovoltaics. The modeling of the optical response of such systems is of fundamental importance to analyze their behavior and to design new systems with required properties. When the characteristic sizes/distances reach a few nanometers, nonlocal and spill-out effects become relevant and conventional classical electrodynamics models are no more appropriate. Methods based on the Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) represent the current reference for the description of quantum effects. However, TD-DFT is based on knowledge of all occupied orbitals, whose calculation is computationally prohibitive to model large plasmonic systems of interest for applications. On the other hand, methods based on the orbital-free (OF) formulation of TD-DFT can scale linearly with the system size. In this Review, OF methods ranging from semiclassical models to the Quantum Hydrodynamic Theory will be derived from the linear response TD-DFT, so that the key approximations and properties of each method can be clearly highlighted. The accuracy of the various approximations will then be validated for the linear optical properties of jellium nanoparticles, the most relevant model system in plasmonics. OF methods can describe the collective excitations in plasmonic systems with great accuracy and without system-tuned parameters. The accuracy of these methods depends only on the accuracy of the (universal) kinetic energy functional of the ground-state electronic density. Current approximations and future development directions will also be indicated.

Many applications in plasmonics are related to the coupling between metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) or between an emitter and a MNP. The theoretical analysis of such a coupling is thus of fundamental importance to analyze the plasmonic behavior and to design new systems. While classical methods neglect quantum and spill-out effects, time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) considers all of them and with Kohn-Sham orbitals delocalized over the whole system. Thus, within TD-DFT, no definite separation of the subsystems (the single MNP or the emitter) and their couplings is directly available. This important feature is obtained here using the subsystem formulation of TD-DFT, which has been originally developed in the context of weakly interacting organic molecules. In subsystem TD-DFT, interacting MNPs are treated independently, thus allowing us to compute the plasmon couplings directly from the subsystem TD-DFT transition densities. We show that subsystem TD-DFT, as well as a simplified version of it in which kinetic contributions are neglected, can reproduce the reference TD-DFT calculations for gap distances greater than about 6 Å or even smaller in the case of hybrid plasmonic systems (i.e., molecules interacting with MNPs). We also show that the subsystem TD-DFT can be also used as a tool to analyze the impact of charge-transfer effects.

Given the omnipresence of noncovalent interactions (NCIs), their accurate simulations are of crucial importance across various scientific disciplines. Here we construct accurate models for the description of NCIs by an interpolation along the Møller-Plesset adiabatic connection (MP AC). Our interpolation approximates the correlation energy, by recovering MP2 at small coupling strengths and the correct large-coupling strength expansion of the MP AC, recently shown to be a functional of the Hartree-Fock density. Our models are size consistent for fragments with nondegenerate ground states, have the same cost as double hybrids, and require no dispersion corrections to capture NCIs accurately. These interpolations greatly reduce large MP2 errors for typical π-stacking complexes (e.g., benzene-pyridine dimers) and for the L7 data set. They are also competitive with state-of-the-art dispersion enhanced functionals and can even significantly outperform them for a variety of data sets, such as CT7 and L7.

We consider kinetic energy functionals that depend, beside the usual semilocal quantities (density, gradient, Laplacian of the density), on a generalized Yukawa potential, that is the screened Coulomb potential of the density raised to some power. These functionals, named Yukawa generalized gradient approximations (yGGA), are potentially efficient real-space semilocal methods that include significant non-local effects and can describe different important exact properties of the kinetic energy. In this work, we focus in particular on the linear response behavior for the homogeneous electron gas (HEG). We show that such functionals are able to reproduce the exact Lindhard function behavior with a very good accuracy, outperforming all other semilocal kinetic functionals. These theoretical advances allow us to perform a detailed analysis of a special class of yGGAs, namely the linear yGGA functionals. Thus, we show how the present approach can generalize the yGGA functionals improving the HEG linear behavior and leading to an extended formula for the kinetic functional. Moreover, testing on several jellium cluster model systems allows highlighting advantages and limitations of the linear yGGA functionals and future perspectives for the development of yGGA kinetic functionals.

We show that the reduced, dimensionless Yukawa potential ${y}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ can be employed as an important ingredient in the construction of the exchange and correlation energy functionals. A functional based on ${y}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ provides a better description of the exchange and correlation linear response functions of the homogeneous electron gas, not only at small wave vectors, where gradient expansions are correct, but also at large wave vectors, where semilocal exchange and correlation functionals fail badly. Moreover, the ${y}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ ingredient gives a realistic description of the exchange energy and potential at the nuclear cusp and the inner atomic core, where the semilocal ingredients (i.e., the reduced gradient and Laplacian of the density) are not suitable, causing divergence of the potential. Thus, the ${y}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ ingredient can be attractive for the development of various exchange-correlation functionals.

Coupling between electromagnetic cavity fields and fluorescent molecules or quantum emitters can be strongly enhanced by reducing the cavity mode volume. Plasmonic structures allow light confinement down to volumes that are only a few cubic nanometers. At such length scales, nonlocal and quantum tunneling effects are expected to influence the emitter interaction with the surface plasmon modes, which unavoidably requires going beyond classical models to accurately describe the electron response at the metal surface. In this context, the quantum hydrodynamic theory (QHT) has emerged as an efficient tool to probe nonlocal and quantum effects in metallic nanostructures. Here, we apply state-of-the-art QHT to investigate the quantum effects on strong coupling of a dipole emitter placed at nanometer distances from metallic particles. A comparison with conventional local response approximation (LRA) and Thomas-Fermi hydrodynamic theory results shows the importance of quantum effects on the plasmon-emitter coupling. The QHT predicts qualitative deviation from LRA in the weak coupling regime that leads to quantitative differences in the strong coupling regime. In nano-gap systems, the inclusion of quantum broadening leads to the existence of an optimal gap size for Rabi splitting that minimizes the requirements on the emitter oscillator strength.

Heavily doped semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) represent a novel class of plasmonic materials: their hypertunable plasmonic resonances play a key role in different nanotechnology applications. The ...

The modeling of optical spectra of plasmonic nanoparticles via first-principles approaches is computationally expensive; thus, methods with high accuracy/computational cost ratio are required. Here, we show that the Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) approach can be strongly simplified if only one s-type function per atom is employed in the auxiliary basis set, with a properly optimized exponent. This approach (named TDDFT-as, for auxiliary s-type) predicts excitation energies for silver nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes with an average error of only 12 meV compared to reference TDDFT calculations. The TDDFT-as approach resembles tight-binding approximation schemes for the linear-response treatment, but for the atomic transition charges, which are here computed exactly (i.e., without approximation from population analysis). We found that the exact computation of the atomic transition charges strongly improves the absorption spectra in a wide energy range.

An accurate description of the optical response of subwavelength metallic particles and nanogap structures is a key problem of plasmonics. Quantum hydrodynamic theory (QHT) has emerged as a powerful method to calculate the optical response of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) since it takes into account nonlocality and spill-out effects. Nevertheless, the absorption spectra of metallic NPs obtained with conventional QHT, i.e., incorporating Thomas-Fermi (TF) and von Weizsäcker (vW) kinetic energy (KE) contributions, can be affected by several spurious resonances at energies higher than the main localized surface plasmon (LSP). These peaks are not present in reference time-dependent density-functional-theory spectra, where, instead, only a broad shoulder exists. Moreover, we show here that these peaks incorrectly reduce the LSP peak intensity and have a strong dependence on the simulation domain size so that a proper calculation of QHT absorption spectra can be problematic. In this article, we introduce a more general QHT method accounting for KE contributions depending on the Laplacian of the electronic density (q), thus, beyond the gradient-only dependence of the TFvW functional. We show that employing a KE functional with a term proportional to q^{2} results in an absorption spectrum free of spurious peaks, with LSP resonance of correct intensity and numerically stable Bennett state. Finally, we present a novel Laplacian-level KE functional that is very accurate for the description of the optical properties of NPs of different sizes as well as for dimers. Thus, the Laplacian-level QHT represents a novel, efficient, and accurate platform to study plasmonic systems.

State-of-the-art fabrication and characterization techniques are nowadays able to experimentally control light–matter interaction at sub-nanometer scales. Thus, theoretical schemes able to overcome the limits of the classical vision and to fully take into account quantum mechanical effects are needed. In this work, we propose time-dependent density functional tight-binding (TD-DFTB) as a new workhorse for computational quantum plasmonics. DFTB has been demonstrated to be an efficient scheme for describing the structural, electronic, and optical properties of different biomolecules and carbon-based nanosystems. We report here on the absorption spectra of silver tetrahedral closed-shell Agn clusters within the framework of TD-DFTB and on their comparison with the reference ones, obtained within the first-principles time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) scheme. It is found out that, under an appropriate choice of the Slater–Koster parametrization, optical spectra result to be in a very good agreement with the reference ones and achievable within a total wall time less than 0.2 the TD-DFT one. This result offers a firm basis to overcome the bottleneck of computational cost in plasmonics and paves the way toward future developments in quantum plasmonics.

The largest increases in spontaneous decay rates of quantum emitters can be achieved using plasmonic structures that are characterized by closely spaced metallic elements. These systems can give rise to the smallest optical cavities attainable, offering a viable solution to achieve single molecule light-matter strong-coupling. On the other hand, their optical response might be strongly affected by nonlocal and quantum effects of the metal electron gas. In this work, we analyze the impact of nonlocal effects on the emission properties of a single quantum emitter coupled to a plasmonic system characterized by deeply subwavelength gap regions, in both the weak and the strong-coupling regimes. We find that the presence of nonlocality imposes strict limits to the achievability of strong-coupling with single molecules in apparent contrast to recent experiments, suggesting that a more refined theory might be required. These limits are even larger if a k-dependent absorption is included in the calculations. These...

We present the theory of semilocal exchange-correlation (XC) energy functionals which depend on the Kohn–Sham kinetic energy density (KED), including the relevant class of meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) functionals. Thanks to the KED ingredient, meta-GGA functionals can satisfy different exact constraints for XC energy and can be made one-electron self-correlation free. This leads to a better accuracy over a wider range of properties with respect to GGAs, often reaching the accuracy of hybrid functionals, but at much reduced computational cost. An extensive survey of the relevant literature on existing KED dependent XC functionals is provided, considering nonempirical, semi-empirical, and fully empirical ones. A deeper analysis and a wide benchmark are presented for functionals derived considering only exact constraints and parameters obtained from model and/or atomic systems.

With this Erratum, we provide corrections to certain mistakes appearing in the original publication.1 Namely, in Eq. (12), the -dependent Hamiltonian for the Hartree-Fock adiabatic connection lacks the external potential term. The correct equation is [Formula Presented]. The typos listed in the following all appear in the appendix. The parameter c in Eq. (A6) is wrong by a factor of two; the correct expression reads as follows: [Formula Presented]. In Eq. (A13), we have incorrectly used the parameter “c”; “c” has to be replaced by as defined in Eq. (A12). Also, the expression lacks the exchange energy. Thus, the proper expression reads as follows: [Formula Presented]. Finally, in Eqs. (A14) and (A15), the fractional powers appearing in the first terms are powers of the density and not of the position vector. Hence, [Formula Presented]. These corrections do not alter any of the results or conclusions shown in the paper.

Plasmonic response of the metallic structure characterized by sub-nanometer dielectric gaps can be strongly affected by nonlocal or quantum effects. In this paper, we investigate these effects in spherical Na and Au nanomatryoshka structures with sub-nanometer core-shell separation. We use the state-of-the-art quantum hydrodynamic theory (QHT) to study both near-field and far-field optical properties of these systems: results are compared with the classical local response approximation (LRA), Thomas-Fermi hydrodynamic theory (TF-HT), and the reference time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). We find that the results obtained using the QHT method are in a very good agreement with TD-DFT calculations, whereas other LRA and TF-HT significantly overestimate the field-enhancements. Thus, the QHT approach efficiently and accurately describes microscopic details of multiscale plasmonic systems whose sizes are computationally out-of-reach for a TD-DFT approach; here, we report results for Na and Au nanomatryoshka with a diameter of 60 nm.

Kinetic energy (KE) approximations are key elements in orbital-free density functional theory. To date, the use of non-local functionals, possibly employing system dependent parameters, has been considered mandatory in order to obtain satisfactory accuracy for different solid-state systems, whereas semilocal approximations are generally regarded as unfit to this aim. Here, we show that instead properly constructed semilocal approximations, the Pauli-Gaussian (PG) KE functionals, especially at the Laplacian-level of theory, can indeed achieve similar accuracy as non-local functionals and can be accurate for both metals and semiconductors, without the need of system-dependent parameters., Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures

Approximate exchange-correlation functionals built by modeling in a non-linear way the adiabatic connection (AC) integrand of density functional theory have many attractive features, being virtually parameters-free and satisfying different exact properties, but they also have a fundamental flaw: they violate the size-consistency condition, crucial to evaluate interaction energies of molecular systems. We show that size consistency in the AC-based functionals can be restored in a very simple way at no extra computational cost. Results on a large set of benchmark molecular interaction energies show that functionals based on the interaction strength interpolation approximations are significantly more accurate than the second-order perturbation theory., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Orbital-Free Density Functional Theory (OF-DFT) promises to describe the electronic structure of very large quantum systems, being its computational cost linear with the system size. However, the OF-DFT accuracy strongly depends on the approximation made for the kinetic energy (KE) functional. To date, the most accurate KE functionals are non-local functionals based on the linear-response kernel of the homogeneous electron gas, i.e. the jellium model. Here, we use the linear-response kernel of the jellium-with-gap model, to construct a simple non-local KE functional (named KGAP) which depends on the band gap energy. In the limit of vanishing energy-gap (i.e. in the case of metals), the KGAP is equivalent to the Smargiassi-Madden (SM) functional, which is accurate for metals. For a series of semiconductors (with different energy-gaps), the KGAP performs much better than SM, and results are close to the state-of-the-art functionals with complicated density-dependent kernels., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

The performance of functionals based on the idea of interpolating between the weak and the strong-interaction limits the global adiabatic-connection integrand is carefully studied for the challenging case of noble-metal clusters. Different interpolation formulas are considered and various features of this approach are analyzed. It is found that these functionals, when used as a correlation correction to Hartree-Fock, are quite robust for the description of atomization energies, while performing less well for ionization potentials. Future directions that can be envisaged from this study and a previous one on main group chemistry are discussed., 16 pages, 6 figures

We have studied the correlation potentials produced by various adiabatic connection models (ACM) for several atoms and molecules. The results have been compared to accurate reference potentials (coupled cluster and quantum Monte Carlo results) as well as to state-of-the-art ab initio DFT approaches. We have found that all the ACMs yield correlation potentials that exhibit a correct behavior, quite resembling scaled second-order G\"orling-Levy (GL2) potentials, and including most of the physically meaningful features of the accurate reference data. The behavior and contribution of the strong-interaction limit potentials has also been investigated and discussed., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures

We investigate a highly-nonlocal generalization of the Lindhard function, given by the jellium-with-gap model. We find a band-gap-dependent gradient expansion of the kinetic energy, which performs noticeably well for large atoms. Using the static linear response theory and the simplest semilocal model for the local band gap, we derive a non-empirical generalized gradient approximation (GGA) of the kinetic energy. This GGA kinetic energy functional is remarkably accurate for the description of weakly interacting molecular systems within the subsystem formulation of Density Functional Theory., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

Electromechanical coupling through piezoelectric polymer chains allows the emission of organic molecules in active nanowires to be tuned. This effect is evidenced by highly bendable arrays of counter-ion dye-doped nanowires made of a poly(vinylidenefluoride) copolymer. A reversible redshift of the dye emission is found upon the application of dynamic stress during highly accurate bending experiments. By density functional theory calculations it is found that these photophysical properties are associated with mechanical stresses applied to electrostatically interacting molecular systems, namely to counterion-mediated states that involve light-emitting molecules as well as charged regions of piezoelectric polymer chains. These systems are an electrostatic class of supramolecular functional stress-sensitive units, which might impart new functionalities in hybrid molecular nanosystems and anisotropic nanostructures for sensing devices and soft robotics., Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures

By using time-dependent density functional theory, we investigate in a fully quantum mechanical framework the interactions, in an ultra-near-field regime, between a localized surface plasmon excitable in a silver tetrahedral cluster and a molecular exciton with excitation energy in the same range. We show that, for metal–molecule distances below 5 Å, the optical response of the system results characterized by the appearance of a double peak structure. We analyze the transition densities for the resonant energies and propose a plasmon–exciton electromagnetic interaction model to explain the emerging of a lower energy resonance in the spectra of such kind of hybrid systems of interest for molecular plasmonics.

A full control of the interaction between confined plasmons and point sources of radiation is a central issue in molecular plasmonics. In this paper, a theoretical contribution towards a physical understanding on the localized surface plasmons excited into metallic nanocones by a point dipole is given. A numerical approach based on the discrete dipole approximation is applied to determine the modifications of the dipole decay rates for varying geometrical parameters of the dipole-metal nanoparticle system. Results declare the centrality of the cone aperture to control the plasmon resonances and to handle the effects it induces on the lifetime of a point emitter. A full spectral tuning of the resonances in the decay rates can be achieved by operating on a unique spatial degree of freedom: by tailoring the aperture alone, total decay rates 10(5) times higher than the free-space value can be obtained at short distances from the metal in a large region of the spectral range. Quite unexpectedly, size dependence of the antenna is found to have a marginal role if only a lifetime manipulation is desired. It becomes, instead, a crucial aspect of the problem when large quantum yields are required. Results presented in this work shed light on spontaneous emission modification due to interaction with plasmonic nanocones of different shapes and are relevant for a number of applications in the fields of nanoplasmonics and fluorescence microscopy.

We have tested the original interaction-strength-interpolation (ISI) exchange-correlation functional for main group chemistry. The ISI functional is based on an interpolation between the weak and strong coupling limits and includes exact-exchange as well as the G\"orling-Levy second-order energy. We have analyzed in detail the basis-set dependence of the ISI functional, its dependence on the ground-state orbitals, and the influence of the size-consistency problem. We show and explain some of the expected limitations of the ISI functional (i.e. for atomization energies), but also unexpected results, such as the good performance for the interaction energy of dispersion-bonded complexes when the ISI correlation is used as a correction to Hartree-Fock., Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures

Polymorphic crystalline microfi bers from an achiral octithiophene with one S-hexyl substituent per ring are separately and reproducibly grown with the same characteristics on various solid surfaces, including the interdigitated electrodes/SiO 2 surface of a bottomcontact fi eld-effect transistor. The arrangement of the same molecule in two diverse supramolecular structures leads to markedly different electronic, optical, and charge mobility properties. The microfi bers—straight and yellow emitting or helical and red emitting—exhibit p -type charge transport characteristics, with the yellow ones showing a charge mobility and on/off current ratio of one and three orders of magnitude, respectively, greater than the red ones. Both forms show circular dichroism signals with signifi cant differences from one form to the other. DFT calculations show that the octithiophene exists in two different quasiequienergetic conformations aggregating with diverse orientations of the substituents. This result suggests that the observed polymorphism is conformational in nature. The self-assembly, driven by sulfur‐sulfur non-bonding interactions, amplifi es the small property differences between conformers, leading to quite different bulk properties.

Multiscale plasmonic systems (e.g., extended metallic nanostructures with subnanometer inter-distances) play a key role in the development of next-generation nanophotonic devices. An accurate modeling of the optical interactions in these systems requires an accurate description of both quantum effects and far-field properties. Classical electromagnetism can only describe the latter, while time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) can provide a full first-principles quantum treatment. However, TD-DFT becomes computationally prohibitive for sizes that exceed few nanometers, which are instead very important for most applications. In this article, we introduce a method based on the quantum hydrodynamic theory (QHT) that includes nonlocal contributions of the kinetic energy and the correct asymptotic description of the electron density. We show that our QHT method can predict both plasmon energy and spill-out effects in metal nanoparticles in excellent agreement with TD-DFT predictions, thus allowing reliable and efficient calculations of both quantum and far-field properties in multiscale plasmonic systems.

We investigate the behavior of the kinetic and the exchange energy densities near the nuclear cusp of atomic systems. Considering hydrogenic orbitals, we derive analytical expressions near the nucleus, for single shells, as well as in the semiclassical limit of large non-relativistic neutral atoms. We show that a model based on the helium iso-electronic series is very accurate, as also confirmed by numerical calculations on real atoms up to two thousands electrons. Based on this model, we propose non-local density-dependent ingredients that are suitable for the description of the kinetic and exchange energy densities in the region close to the nucleus. These non-local ingredients are invariant under the uniform scaling of the density, and they can be used in the construction of non-local exchange-correlation and kinetic functionals., 11 pages, 7 figures

One important property of Kohn-Sham (KS) density functional theory is the exact equality of the energy of the highest occupied KS orbital (HOMO) with the negative ionization potential of the system. This exact feature is out of reach for standard density-dependent semilocal functionals. Conversely, accurate results can be obtained using orbital-dependent functionals in the optimized effective potential (OEP) approach. In this article, we investigate the performance, in this context, of some advanced OEP methods, with special emphasis on the recently proposed scaled-opposite-spin OEP functional. Moreover, we analyze the impact of the so-called HOMO condition on the final quality of the HOMO energy. Results are compared to reference data obtained at the CCSD(T) level of theory. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Semilocal density functional theory is the most used computational method for electronic structure calculations in theoretical solid-state physics and quantum chemistry of large systems, providing good accuracy with a very attractive computational cost. Nevertheless, because of the non-locality of the exchange-correlation hole outside a metal surface, it was always considered inappropriate to describe the correct surface asymptotics. Here, we derive, within the semilocal density functional theory formalism, an exact condition for the image-like surface asymptotics of both the exchange-correlation energy per particle and potential. We show that this condition can be easily incorporated into a practical computational tool, at the simple meta-generalized-gradient approximation level of theory. Using this tool, we also show that the Airy-gas model exhibits asymptotic properties that are closely related to the ones at metal surfaces. This result highlights the relevance of the linear effective potential model to the metal surface asymptotics., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Efficient manipulation and long-distance transport of single photons is a key component in nanoscale quantum optics. In this Letter, we study the emission properties of an individual light emitter placed into a nanofiber and coupled to a metallic nanoparticle. We find that plasmonic field enhancement together with nanofiber optical confinement uniquely and synergistically contribute to an overall increase of emission rates as well as quantum yields. We predict a quantum yield enhancement up to a factor of 2.5 with respect to free space for an averaged dipole orientation.

Using the semiclassical neutral atom theory, we extend to fourth order the modified gradient expansion of the exchange energy of density functional theory. This expansion can be applied both to large atoms and solid-state problems. Moreover, we show that it can be employed to construct a simple and non-empirical generalized gradient approximation (GGA) exchange-correlation functional competitive with state-of-the-art GGAs for solids, but also reasonably accurate for large atoms and ordinary chemistry., 10 pages, 7 figures

We investigate the interfacial electronic structure of the dipolar organic semiconductor vanadyl naphthalocyanine on Au(111) in a combined computational and experimental approach to understand the role of the permanent molecular dipole moment on energy-level alignment at this interface. First-principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations on such large systems are challenging, due to the large computational cost and the need to accurately consider dispersion interactions. Our DFT results with dispersion correction show a molecular deformation upon adsorption but no strong chemical bond formation. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show a considerable workfunction change of -0.73(2) eV upon growth of the first monolayer, which is well reproduced by the DFT calculations. This shift originates from a large electron density "push-back" effect at the gold surface, whereas the large out-of-plane vanadyl dipole moment plays only a minor role.

Roughness is an important feature in plasmonics. Nanoparticles with a nanoscale surface buckling or with protrusions out of surfaces display higher absorption efficiencies and surface-enhanced Raman scattering activities with respect to smooth surfaces. In this work the effects of the branches and of their electromagnetic coupling on the near-field enhancement are investigated by considering urchins-like silver nanoparticles. The theoretical analysis here reported, performed in the framework of the discrete dipole approximation, shines light on the optical response of these multibranched objects in the near-field regime by varying the spines dimensions and their relative distances. Three important results are obtained: (i) a too large number of protrusions makes them electromagnetically interacting, thus reducing the field enhancement factors; (ii) increasing of the spines radius blue-shifts the resonances and reduces the absorption; (iii) growing the aculei height leads to an important red-shift of the s...

In this paper a theoretical study of polarization properties of a silver nanosphere touching a homogeneous silver substrate and covered by oxide layers of increasing thickness, is reported. Oxide layers are often deposited on metallic nanostructures in metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) or surface-enhanced raman scattering experiments to avoid nonradiative energy transfer from emitters to the metal, and to increase the nanoparticles stability against thermal processes and laser exposure. Not much has been said on the effect of the oxide on the field enhancement of such kind of plasmonic systems. This work aims at filling this gap by shedding light on the effects of the oxide coverage on the near and far field behavior: numerical simulations performed in the framework of the discrete dipole approximation show the presence of new resonances in the absorption spectra and, of major importance for MEF applications, a strong enhancement of the near field around the nanosphere.

Hybrid polymer-plasmonic nanostructures might combine high enhancement of localized fields from metal nanoparticles with light confinement and long-range transport in subwavelength dielectric structures. Here, the complex behavior of fluorophores coupling to Au nanoparticles within polymer nanowires, which features localized metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) with unique characteristics compared to conventional structures, is reported. The intensification effect when the particle is placed in the organic filaments is remarkably higher with respect to thin films of comparable thickness, thus highlighting a specific, nanowire-related enhancement of MEF effects. A dependence on the confinement volume in the dielectric nanowire is also indicated, with MEF significantly increasing upon reduction of the wire diameter. These findings are rationalized by finite element simulations, predicting a position-dependent enhancement of the quantum yield of fluorophores embedded in the fibers. Calculation of the ensemble-averaged fluorescence enhancement unveils the possibility of strongly enhancing the overall emission intensity for structures with size twice the diameter of the embedded metal particles. These new, hybrid fluorescent systems with localized enhanced emission, and the general nanowire-enhanced MEF effects associated to them, are highly relevant for developing nanoscale light-emitting devices with high efficiency and intercoupled through nanofiber networks, highly sensitive optical sensors, and novel laser architectures.

We investigate the ability of different density functional methods to describe the electronic properties of isolated gold clusters, self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of oligophenylthiols (including the depolarization effect), and the biphenylthiol/gold interface. To elucidate the role of the exchange interaction, we consider a hierarchy of functionals including conventional (e.g., within the gradient corrected approximation), hybrid, and effective exact-exchange functionals, namely the Localized Hartree–Fock (LHF) method, which is free from the self-interaction-error (SIE). We find that conventional exchange-correlation functionals cannot well describe the energy-level alignment at the metal/organic interface and predict a negligible metal-molecule charge-transfer. In addition, an overestimation of dipole moments and polarization effects are obtained in oligophenylthiols, leading to a wrong description of the SAM depolarization effect. Both limitations are mostly overcome if exact-exchange contributions are taken into account either using an hybrid functional or the LHF method. In particular, an accurate description of the metal/organic interface is only achieved using SIE free methods. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010

International audience; We extend the SG4 generalized gradient approximation, developed for covalent and ionic solids with a nonlocal van der Waals functional. The resulting SG4-rVV10m functional is tested, considering two possible parameterizations, for various kinds of bulk solids including layered materials and molecular crystals as well as regular bulk materials. The results are compared to those of similar methods, PBE + rVV10L and rVV10. In most cases, SG4-rVV10m yields a quite good description of systems (from iono-covalent to hydrogen-bond and dispersion interactions), being competitive with PBE + rVV10L and rVV10 for dispersion-dominated systems and slightly superior for iono-covalent ones. Thus, it shows a promising applicability for solid-state applications. In a few cases, however, overbinding is observed. This is analysed in terms of gradient contributions to the functional.

Self-assembled donor/acceptor dyads are of current interest as they are biomimetic to the natural photosynthetic conversion system. Herein, we present an ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (UHV-STM/STS) study of ex situ self-assembled supramolecular dyads consisting of fulleropyrrolidines (PyC 2 C 60 ) axially ligated to zinc(II) tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP), self organized on a 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) self-assembled monolayer on gold-(111). These dyads show both bias-polarity-dependent apparent height in STM images and highly rectifying behavior in tunneling spectroscopy. First-principles density functional theory calculations clarify the conformational and electronic properties of the 4-ATP/ZnTPP/PyC 2 C 60 system. Interestingly, we find easier tunneling for electrons moving from the acceptor side of the dyads to the donor side, in the inverse-rectifying sense with respect to previously reported molecular rectifiers. Such behavior cannot be explained as an elastic resonant tunneling process, but it can by using a model based on the Aviram-Ratner mechanism.

Modifications of the optical properties of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] induced by fluorination of the vinylene units are investigated by means of time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations and spectroscopic measurements in solution. The energy of the main absorption peak is blue-shifted by more than 0.8 eV in the fluorinated polymers. TD-DFT excitation energies for non-fluorinated and fluorinated oligomer structures of increasing number of monomers, employing fully relaxed geometries, are compared to the experimental absorption energies of the polymers. We found that the measured large blue-shift induced by the fluorination of the vinylene units is not caused by the electron-withdrawing effect of the fluorine substituents but it is related to a steric effect. The inter-monomer torsional angle of the fluorinated structures increases above 50 degrees , while in the non-fluorinated systems it is below 20 degrees . Further insight into the origin of the large blue-shift of the excitation energies is gained by a detailed analysis of the torsional potentials of non-fluorinated and fluorinated dihydroxystilbene. While for planar geometries the energy gap increases due to fluorination, it decreases for highly distorted geometries. In addition, we found that the torsional potential of dihydroxystilbene is rather flat, meaning that different isomers might, e.g., in the solid state, coexist.

We propose a simple gradient-dependent bound for the exchange-correlation energy (sLL), based on the recent non-local bound derived by Lewin and Lieb. We show that sLL is equivalent to the original Lieb-Oxford bound in rapidly-varying density cases but it is tighter for slowly-varying density systems. To show the utility of the sLL bound we apply it to the construction of simple semilocal and non-local exchange and correlation functionals. In both cases improved results, with respect to the use of Lieb-Oxford bound, are obtained showing the power of the sLL bound., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures