Ab Initio Approach to Second-order Resonant Raman Scattering Including Exciton-Phonon Interaction.

Raman spectra obtained by the inelastic scattering of light by crystalline solids contain contributions from first-order vibrational processes (e.g. the emission or absorption of one phonon, a quantum of vibration) as well as higher-order processes with at least two phonons being involved. At second order, coupling with the entire phonon spectrum induces a response that may strongly depend on the excitation energy, and reflects complex processes more difficult to interpret. In particular, excitons (i.e. bound electron-hole pairs) may enhance the absorption and emission of light, and couple strongly with phonons in resonance conditions. We design and implement a first-principles methodology to compute second-order Raman scattering, incorporating dielectric responses and phonon eigenstates obtained from density-functional theory and many-body theory. We demonstrate our approach for the case of silicon, relating frequency-dependent relative Raman intensities, that are in excellent agreement with experiment, to different vibrations and regions of the Brillouin zone. We show that exciton-phonon coupling, computed from first principles, indeed strongly affects the spectrum in resonance conditions. The ability to analyze second-order Raman spectra thus provides direct insight into this interaction.

Exciting: a full-potential all-electron package implementing density-functional theory and many-body perturbation theory.

Linearized augmented planewave methods are known as the most precise numerical schemes for solving the Kohn-Sham equations of density-functional theory (DFT). In this review, we describe how this method is realized in the all-electron full-potential computer package, exciting. We emphasize the variety of different related basis sets, subsumed as (linearized) augmented planewave plus local orbital methods, discussing their pros and cons and we show that extremely high accuracy (microhartrees) can be achieved if the basis is chosen carefully. As the name of the code suggests, exciting is not restricted to ground-state calculations, but has a major focus on excited-state properties. It includes time-dependent DFT in the linear-response regime with various static and dynamical exchange-correlation kernels. These are preferably used to compute optical and electron-loss spectra for metals, molecules and semiconductors with weak electron-hole interactions. exciting makes use of many-body perturbation theory for charged and neutral excitations. To obtain the quasi-particle band structure, the GW approach is implemented in the single-shot approximation, known as G(0)W(0). Optical absorption spectra for valence and core excitations are handled by the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation, which allows for the description of strongly bound excitons. Besides these aspects concerning methodology, we demonstrate the broad range of possible applications by prototypical examples, comprising elastic properties, phonons, thermal-expansion coefficients, dielectric tensors and loss functions, magneto-optical Kerr effect, core-level spectra and more.