We compute the polarizability of a Helium atom. The polarizability
is defined as the change in dipole moment
$$
\mu = \int r ρ(r) dr
$$
with respect to a small uniform electric field E = -x.
We compute this in two ways: first by finite differences (applying a finite electric field), then by linear response. Note that DFTK is not really adapted to isolated atoms because it uses periodic boundary conditions. Nevertheless we can simply embed the Helium atom in a large enough box (although this is computationally wasteful).
As in other tests, this is not fully converged, convergence parameters were simply selected for fast execution on CI,
using DFTK
using LinearAlgebra
a = 10.
lattice = a * I(3) # cube of ``a`` bohrs
# Helium at the center of the box
atoms = [ElementPsp(:He, psp=load_psp("hgh/lda/He-q2"))]
positions = [[1/2, 1/2, 1/2]]
kgrid = [1, 1, 1] # no k-point sampling for an isolated system
Ecut = 30
tol = 1e-8
# dipole moment of a given density (assuming the current geometry)
function dipole(basis, ρ)
rr = [(r[1] - a/2) for r in r_vectors_cart(basis)]
sum(rr .* ρ) * basis.dvol
end;
We first compute the polarizability by finite differences. First compute the dipole moment at rest:
model = model_LDA(lattice, atoms, positions; symmetries=false)
basis = PlaneWaveBasis(model; Ecut, kgrid)
res = self_consistent_field(basis, tol=tol)
μref = dipole(basis, res.ρ)
Then in a small uniform field:
ε = .01
model_ε = model_LDA(lattice, atoms, positions;
extra_terms=[ExternalFromReal(r -> -ε * (r[1] - a/2))],
symmetries=false)
basis_ε = PlaneWaveBasis(model_ε; Ecut, kgrid)
res_ε = self_consistent_field(basis_ε, tol=tol)
με = dipole(basis_ε, res_ε.ρ)
polarizability = (με - μref) / ε
println("Reference dipole: $μref")
println("Displaced dipole: $με")
println("Polarizability : $polarizability")
The result on more converged grids is very close to published results. For example DOI 10.1039/C8CP03569E quotes 1.65 with LSDA and 1.38 with CCSD(T).
Now we use linear response to compute this analytically; we refer to standard
textbooks for the formalism. In the following, \chi_0 is the
independent-particle polarizability, and K the
Hartree-exchange-correlation kernel. We denote with \delta V_{\rm ext} an external
perturbing potential (like in this case the uniform electric field). Then:
$$
\delta\rho = \chi_0 \delta V = \chi_0 (\delta V_{\rm ext} + K \delta\rho),
$$
which implies
$$
\delta\rho = (1-\chi_0 K)^{-1} \chi_0 \delta V_{\rm ext}.
$$
From this we identify the polarizability operator to be \chi = (1-\chi_0 K)^{-1} \chi_0.
Numerically, we apply \chi to \delta V = -x by solving a linear equation
(the Dyson equation) iteratively.
using KrylovKit
# Apply (1- χ0 K)
function dielectric_operator(δρ)
δV = apply_kernel(basis, δρ; ρ=res.ρ)
χ0δV = apply_χ0(res.ham, res.ψ, res.εF, res.eigenvalues, δV)
δρ - χ0δV
end
# δVext is the potential from a uniform field interacting with the dielectric dipole
# of the density.
δVext = [-(r[1] - a/2) for r in r_vectors_cart(basis)]
δVext = cat(δVext; dims=4)
# Apply χ0 once to get non-interacting dipole
δρ_nointeract = apply_χ0(res.ham, res.ψ, res.εF, res.eigenvalues, δVext)
# Solve Dyson equation to get interacting dipole
δρ = linsolve(dielectric_operator, δρ_nointeract, verbosity=3)[1]
println("Non-interacting polarizability: $(dipole(basis, δρ_nointeract))")
println("Interacting polarizability: $(dipole(basis, δρ))")
As expected, the interacting polarizability matches the finite difference result. The non-interacting polarizability is higher.