A Computational Study of AlF3 and ACF Surfaces

By applying first principles density functional theory (DFT) methods, different metal fluorides and their surfaces have been characterized. One of the most investigated metal fluorides is AlF3 in different polymorphs. Its chloride-doped analogon AlClxF3−x (ACF) has recently attracted much attention due to its application in catalysis. After presenting a summary of different first-principle studies on the bulk and surface properties of different main group fluorides, we will revisit the problem of the stability of different α -AlF3 surfaces and extend the investigation to chloride-doped counterparts to simulate the surface properties of amorphous ACF. For each material, we have considered ten different surface cuts with their respective terminations. We found that terminations of ( 011¯0 ) and ( 112¯0 ) yield the most stable surfaces for α -AlF3 and for the chlorine substituted surfaces. A potential equilibrium shape of the crystal for both α -AlF3 and ACF is visualized by a Wulff construction. View Full-Tex

Multiconfiguration Pair-Density Functional Theory for Chromium(IV) Molecular Qubits

Pseudotetrahedral organometallic complexes containing chromium(IV) and aryl ligands have been experimentally identified as promising molecular qubit candidates. Here we present a computational protocol based on multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory for computing singlet–triplet gaps and zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters in Cr(IV) aryl complexes. We find that two multireference methods, multistate complete active space second-order perturbation theory (MS-CASPT2) and hybrid multistate pair-density functional theory (HMS-PDFT), perform better than Kohn–Sham density functional theory for singlet–triplet gaps. Despite the very small values of the ZFS parameters, both multireference methods performed qualitatively well. MS-CASPT2 and HMS-PDFT performed particularly well for predicting the trend in the ratio of the rhombic and axial ZFS parameters, |E/D|. We have also investigated the dependence and sensitivity of the calculated ZFS parameters on the active space and the molecular geometry. The methodologies outlined here can guide future prediction of ZFS parameters in molecular qubit candidates

The OpenMolcas Web: A Community-Driven Approach to Advancing Computational Chemistry

The developments of the open-source OpenMolcas chemistry software environment since spring 2020 are described, with a focus on novel functionalities accessible in the stable branch of the package or via interfaces with other packages. These developments span a wide range of topics in computational chemistry and are presented in thematic sections: electronic structure theory, electronic spectroscopy simulations, analytic gradients and molecular structure optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, and other new features. This report offers an overview of the chemical phenomena and processes OpenMolcas can address, while showing that OpenMolcas is an attractive platform for state-of-the-art atomistic computer simulations

Localized Multireference Methods for Strongly Correlated Systems

Computational modelling of molecules and materials with strongly correlated electrons hasbeen a long-standing challenge in the field of theoretical chemistry. While, conventional multireference wave function methods provide a robust way to account of strong electron correlation, the high cost associated with them prohibits their application even for moderately sized systems. This dissertation focuses on development and application of low-cost, chemically-guided multireference methods. The primary emphasis is on the localized active space self-consistent field (LASSCF) method. This method is designed for systems with strongly correlated orbitals that are localized in different regions of the system. LASSCF scales better than the conventional complete active space (CAS) method and gives qualitatively accurate results for various classes of compounds. To extend the applications of LASSCF beyond capturing qualitative behavior, we developed methods that account for further electron correlation. The LAS-PDFT (pair density functional theory) method is less susceptible to approximations of the wave function and shows better agreement to the corresponding CAS results even for systems for which LASSCF fails to do so. The LAS-State interaction method systematically restores entanglement between the fragments and provides better insights for practical applications. The LAS-Unitary coupled cluster (UCC) method (chapter 5) is designed for fault-tolerant quantum computers in order to leverage their power to do unitary operations in order to rebuild correlation between LAS fragments.Lastly, we discuss the hybrid multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory (HMC-PDFT) that provides a significant improvement over the conventional PDFT in calculating excitation energies for a wide range of systems. These methods greatly extend our reach to get qualitatively accurate wave functions and quantitatively accurate energies for a wide range of challenging systems at a significantly lower computational cost

Multireference Study of Optically Addressable Vanadium-based Molecular Qubit Candidates

Molecular electron spin qubits with optical manipulation schemes are some of the most promising candidates for modern quantum technologies. Key values that determine a compound’s viability for optical-spin initialization and readout include its singlet-triplet gap and zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameters. Generally, these values are very small in magnitude and are thus difficult to reproduce with theoretical methods. Here we study a previously identified optically addressable molecular qubit, (C6F5)3trenVCNtBu (tren = tris(2-aminoethyl)amine), using the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and post-CASSCF methods (CASPT2, MC-PDFT, and HMC-PDFT). Of those methods, we successfully reproduce the singlet-triplet gap and ZFS parameters with reasonable accuracy using 0.5 HMC-PDFT and CASPT2. Four additional V3+ complexes with differing ligands were also investigated. We found that the ligands have minimal effect on the spin properties of the molecule and propose them to be optically addressable qubit candidates. These potential qubits are further analyzed in terms of ab initio ligand field theory (AILFT) to understand the influence of the ligands on the singlet-triplet gap and ZFS parameters

Excited States of Crystalline Point Defects with Multireference Density Matrix Embedding Theory

Accurate and affordable methods to characterize the electronic structure of solids are important for targeted materials design. Embedding-based methods provide an appealing balance in the trade-off between cost and accuracy - particularly when studying localized phenomena. Here, we use the density matrix embedding theory (DMET) algorithm to study the electronic excitations in solid-state defects with a restricted open-shell Hartree--Fock (ROHF) bath and multireference impurity solvers, specifically, complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and n-electron valence state second-order perturbation theory (NEVPT2). We apply the method to investigate an oxygen vacancy (OV) on a MgO(100) surface and find absolute deviations within 0.05 eV between DMET using the CASSCF/NEVPT2 solver, denoted as CAS-DMET/NEVPT2-DMET, and the non-embedded CASSCF/NEVPT2 approach. Next, we establish the practicality of DMET by extending it to larger supercells for the OV defect and a neutral silicon-vacancy in diamond where the use of non-embedded CASSCF/NEVPT2 is extremely expensive

A Computational Study of AlF₃ and ACF Surfaces

By applying first principles density functional theory (DFT) methods, different metal fluorides and their surfaces have been characterized. One of the most investigated metal fluorides is AlF3 in different polymorphs. Its chloride-doped analogon AlClxF3−x (ACF) has recently attracted much attention due to its application in catalysis. After presenting a summary of different first-principle studies on the bulk and surface properties of different main group fluorides, we will revisit the problem of the stability of different α -AlF3 surfaces and extend the investigation to chloride-doped counterparts to simulate the surface properties of amorphous ACF. For each material, we have considered ten different surface cuts with their respective terminations. We found that terminations of ( 01 1 ¯ 0 ) and ( 11 2 ¯ 0 ) yield the most stable surfaces for α -AlF3 and for the chlorine substituted surfaces. A potential equilibrium shape of the crystal for both α -AlF3 and ACF is visualized by a Wulff construction

Spin State Ordering in Metal-Based Compounds Using the Localized Active Space Self-Consistent Field Method

Quantitatively accurate calculations for spin state ordering in transition-metal complexes typically demand a robust multiconfigurational treatment. The poor scaling of such methods with increasing size makes them impractical for large, strongly correlated systems. Density matrix embedding theory (DMET) is a fragmentation approach that can be used to specifically address this challenge. The single-determinantal bath framework of DMET is applicable in many situations, but it has been shown to perform poorly for molecules characterized by strong correlation when a multiconfigurational self-consistent field solver is used. To ameliorate this problem, the localized active space self-consistent field (LASSCF) method was recently described. In this work, LASSCF is applied to predict spin state energetics in mono- and di-iron systems and we show that the model offers an accuracy equivalent to CASSCF but at a substantially lower computational cost. Performance as a function of basis set and active space is also examined.</p

Localized Active Space State Interaction: A Multireference Method For Chemical Insight

Multireference electronic structure methods, like the complete active space (CAS) selfconsistent field model, have long been used to characterize chemically interesting processes. Important work has been done in recent years to develop modifications having lower computational cost than CAS, but typically these methods offer no more chemical insight than that from the CAS solution being approximated. In this paper, we present the localized active space - state interaction (LASSI) method that can be used not only to lower the intrinsic cost of the multireference calculation, but also to improve interpretability. The localized active space (LAS) approach utilizes the local nature of electron-electron correlation to express a composite wave function as an antisymmetrized product of unentangled wave functions in local active subspaces. LASSI then uses these LAS states as a basis from which to express complete molecular wave functions. This not only makes the molecular wave function more compact, but it also permits flexibility in choosing those states to include in the basis. Such selective inclusion of states translates to selective inclusion of specific types of interactions, thereby allowing a quantitative analysis of these interaction. We demonstrate the use of LASSI to study charge migration and spin-flip excitations in multireference organic molecules. We also compute the J coupling parameter for a bimetallic compound using various LAS bases to construct the Hamiltonian to provide insight into the coupling mechanism

Localized Quantum Chemistry on Quantum Computers

Quantum chemistry calculations of large, strongly correlated systems are typically limited by the computation cost that scales exponentially with the size of the system. Quantum algorithms, designed specifically for quantum computers, can alleviate this, but the resources required are still too large for today’s quantum devices. Here we present a quantum algorithm that combines a localization of multireference wave functions of chemical systems with quantum phase estimation (QPE) and variational unitary coupled cluster singles and doubles (UCCSD) to compute their ground state energy. Our algorithm, termed “local active space unitary coupled cluster” (LAS-UCC), scales linearly with system size for certain geometries, providing a polynomial reduction in the total number of gates compared with QPE, while providing accuracy above that of the variational quantum eigensolver using the UCCSD ansatz and also above that of the classical local active space self-consistent field. The accuracy of LAS-UCC is demonstrated by dissociating (H2)2 into two H2 molecules and by breaking the two double bonds in trans-butadiene and resources estimates are provided for linear chains of up to 20 H2 molecules