Efficient implementation of core-excitation Bethe Salpeter equation calculations

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimized implementation of the Bethe-Salpeter equation method for core-level spectra calculations, significantly increasing the system size that can be analyzed using ab initio electronic structure methods.

Contribution

The authors present new efficiencies and parallelization techniques that enable large-scale core-excitation spectral calculations for systems with up to a few thousand electrons.

Findings

Achieved tenfold increase in system size for spectral calculations

Demonstrated scalability on supercells of SrTiO3

Provided example spectra for complex organic molecules

Abstract

We present an efficient implementation of the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) method for obtaining core-level spectra including x-ray absorption (XAS), x-ray emission (XES), and both resonant and non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra (N/RIXS). Calculations are based on density functional theory (DFT) electronic structures generated either by abinit or Quantumespresso, both plane-wave basis, pseudopotential codes. This electronic structure is improved through the inclusion of a GW self energy. The projector augmented wave technique is used to evaluate transition matrix elements between core-level and band states. Final two-particle scattering states are obtained with the NIST core-level BSE solver (NBSE). We have previously reported this implementation, which we refer to as ocean (Obtaining Core Excitations from Ab initio electronic structure and NBSE) [Phys. Rev. B 83, 115106 (2011)]. Here, we present additional efficiencies that enable us to evaluate spectra for systems ten times larger than previously possible; containing up to a few thousand electrons. These improvements include the implementation of optimal basis functions that reduce the cost of the initial DFT calculations, more complete parallelization of the screening calculation and of the action of the BSE Hamiltonian, and various memory reductions. Scaling is demonstrated on supercells of SrTiO_3 and example spectra for the organic light emitting molecule Tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq_3 ) are presented. The ability to perform large-scale spectral calculations is particularly advantageous for investigating dilute or non-periodic systems such as doped materials, amorphous systems, or complex nano-structures.