Computational screening of methylammonium based halide perovskites with bandgaps suitable for perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cells.

We aim to find homovalent alternatives for lead and iodine in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskites that show bandgaps suitable for building novel perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cells. To this end, we employ a computational screening for materials with a bandgap between 1.0 eV and 1.9 eV, using density functional theory calculations at the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof and Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof levels of theory. The room-temperature stability of the materials and their phases that satisfy the bandgap criteria is evaluated based on the empirical Goldschmidt tolerance factor. In total, our screening procedure covers 30 different perovskite structures in three phases (orthorhombic, cubic, tetragonal) each. We find 9 materials that are predicted to be stable at room temperature and to have bandgaps in an energy range suitable for application in tandem solar cells.

Kohn-Sham self-interaction correction in real time.

We present a solution scheme for the time-dependent Kohn-Sham self-interaction correction. Based on the generalized optimized effective potential approach, the multiplicative Kohn-Sham potential is constructed in real time and real space for the self-interaction corrected local density approximation. Excitations of different character, including charge-transfer excitations that had been regarded as prime examples for the failure of standard time-dependent density functionals, are described correctly by this approach. We analyze the time-dependent exchange-correlation potential and density, revealing features that are decisive for the correct description of the response.

Orbital density reconstruction for molecules.

The experimental imaging of electronic orbitals has allowed one to gain a fascinating picture of quantum effects. We here show that the energetically high-lying orbitals that are accessible to experimental visualization in general differ, depending on which approach is used to calculate the orbitals. Therefore, orbital imaging faces the fundamental question of which orbitals are the ones that are visualized. Combining angular-resolved photoemission experiments with first-principles calculations, we show that the orbitals from self-interaction-free Kohn-Sham density functional theory are the ones best suited for the orbital-based interpretation of photoemission.

On the relation between orbital-localization and self-interaction errors in the density functional theory treatment of organic semiconductors.

It is commonly argued that the self-interaction error (SIE) inherent in semilocal density functionals is related to the degree of the electronic localization. Yet at the same time there exists a latent ambiguity in the definitions of the terms "localization" and "self-interaction," which ultimately prevents a clear and readily accessible quantification of this relationship. This problem is particularly pressing for organic semiconductor molecules, in which delocalized molecular orbitals typically alternate with localized ones, thus leading to major distortions in the eigenvalue spectra. This paper discusses the relation between localization and SIEs in organic semiconductors in detail. Its findings provide further insights into the SIE in the orbital energies and yield a new perspective on the failure of self-interaction corrections that identify delocalized orbital densities with electrons.

Fluorescence quenching in an organic donor-acceptor dyad: a first principles study.

Perylene bisimide and triphenyl diamine are prototypical organic dyes frequently used in organic solar cells and light emitting devices. Recent Forster-resonant-energy-transfer experiments on a bridged organic dyad consisting of triphenyl diamine as an energy-donor and perylene bisimide as an energy-acceptor revealed a strong fluorescence quenching on the perylene bisimide. This quenching is absent in a solution of free donors and acceptors and thus attributed to the presence of the saturated CH(2)O(CH(2))(12)-bridge. We investigate the cause of the fluorescence quenching as well as the special role of the covalently bound bridge by means of time dependent density functional theory and molecular dynamics. The conformational dynamics of the bridged system leads to a charge transfer process between donor and acceptor that causes the acceptor fluorescence quenching.

Self-interaction correction and the optimized effective potential.

Self-interaction is one of the most substantial problems in present-day density functional theory. A widely used approach to overcome this problem is the self-interaction correction proposed by Perdew and Zunger. However, the thus given functional not only depends on the orbitals explicitly but is also variant under unitary transformation of the orbitals. In this manuscript, we present a generalized version of the optimized effective potential equation which is able to deal with both problems in one go. Calculations for molecules exemplify the approach.

Electrical response of molecular systems: the power of self-interaction corrected kohn-sham theory.

The accurate prediction of electronic response properties of extended molecular systems has been a challenge for conventional, explicit density functionals. We demonstrate that a self-interaction correction (SIC) implemented rigorously within Kohn-Sham theory via the optimized effective potential (OEP) yields polarizabilities close to the ones from highly accurate wave-function-based calculations and exceeding the quality of exact-change OEP. The orbital structure obtained with the OEP-SIC functional and approximations to it are discussed.