Electrical response of molecular systems: the power of self-interaction corrected Kohn-Sham theory

The accurate prediction of electronic response properties of extended molecular systems has been a challenge for conventional, explicit density functionals. We demonstrate that a self-interaction correction implemented rigorously within Kohn-Sham theory via the Optimized Effective Potential (OEP) yields polarizabilities close to the ones from highly accurate wavefunction-based calculations and exceeding the quality of exact-exchange-OEP. The orbital structure obtained with the OEP-SIC functional and approximations to it are discussed.
Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters