Time-dependent density functional theory with ultrasoft pseudopotentials: Real-time electron propagation across a molecular junction Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • A practical computational scheme based on time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and ultrasoft pseudopotentials (USPP) is developed to study electron dynamics in real time. A modified Crank-Nicolson time-stepping algorithm is adopted, under plane-wave basis. The scheme is validated by calculating the optical absorption spectra for a sodium dimer and a benzene molecule. As an application of this USPP-TDDFT formalism, we compute the time evolution of a test electron packet at the Fermi energy of the left metallic lead crossing a benzene-(1,4)-dithiolate junction. A transmission probability of 5-7%, corresponding to a conductance of 4.0-5.6 S, is obtained. These results are consistent with complex band structure estimates and Green's function calculation results at small bias voltages. 2006 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • PHYSICAL REVIEW B

author list (cited authors)

  • Qian, X. F., Li, J., Lin, X., & Yip, S.

citation count

  • 70

complete list of authors

  • Qian, XF||Li, J||Lin, X||Yip, S

publication date

  • January 2006