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Main Authors: Marek, Štěpán, Wilhelm, Jan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21279
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author Marek, Štěpán
Wilhelm, Jan
author_facet Marek, Štěpán
Wilhelm, Jan
contents We present a real-time propagation method for computing linear and nonlinear optical properties of molecules based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The method follows the time evolution of the one-particle density matrix under an external electric field. We include electron-electron interaction effects through a self-energy based on the screened exchange approximation. Quasiparticle energies are taken from a prior $GW$ calculation to construct the effective single-particle Hamiltonian and we represent all operators and wavefunctions in an atom-centered Gaussian basis. We benchmark the accuracy of the real-time propagation against the standard linear-response Bethe-Salpeter equation using a set of organic molecules. We find very good agreement when computing linear-response isotropic polarizability spectra from both approaches, with a mean absolute deviation of 30~meV in peak positions. Beyond linear response, we simulate second harmonic generation and optical rectification in a non-centrosymmetric molecule. These phenomena are not captured by the commonly used linear-response Bethe-Salpeter equation. We foresee broad applicability of real-time propagation based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the study of linear and nonlinear optical properties of molecules as the method has a similar computational cost as time-dependent density functional theory with hybrid functionals.
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publishDate 2025
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spellingShingle Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Molecules from Real-Time Propagation Based on the Bethe-Salpeter Equation
Marek, Štěpán
Wilhelm, Jan
Computational Physics
Chemical Physics
We present a real-time propagation method for computing linear and nonlinear optical properties of molecules based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The method follows the time evolution of the one-particle density matrix under an external electric field. We include electron-electron interaction effects through a self-energy based on the screened exchange approximation. Quasiparticle energies are taken from a prior $GW$ calculation to construct the effective single-particle Hamiltonian and we represent all operators and wavefunctions in an atom-centered Gaussian basis. We benchmark the accuracy of the real-time propagation against the standard linear-response Bethe-Salpeter equation using a set of organic molecules. We find very good agreement when computing linear-response isotropic polarizability spectra from both approaches, with a mean absolute deviation of 30~meV in peak positions. Beyond linear response, we simulate second harmonic generation and optical rectification in a non-centrosymmetric molecule. These phenomena are not captured by the commonly used linear-response Bethe-Salpeter equation. We foresee broad applicability of real-time propagation based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the study of linear and nonlinear optical properties of molecules as the method has a similar computational cost as time-dependent density functional theory with hybrid functionals.
title Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Molecules from Real-Time Propagation Based on the Bethe-Salpeter Equation
topic Computational Physics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21279