Anharmonic Infrared Spectroscopy through the Fourier Transform of Time Correlation Function Formalism in ONETEP

J Chem Theory Comput. 2015 Jul 14;11(7):3321-32. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00391.

Abstract

Density functional theory molecular dynamics (DFT-MD) provides an efficient framework for accurately computing several types of spectra. The major benefit of DFT-MD approaches lies in the ability to naturally take into account the effects of temperature and anharmonicity, without having to introduce any ad hoc or a posteriori corrections. Consequently, computational spectroscopy based on DFT-MD approaches plays a pivotal role in the understanding and assignment of experimental peaks and bands at finite temperature, particularly in the case of floppy molecules. Linear-scaling DFT methods can be used to study large and complex systems, such as peptides, DNA strands, amorphous solids, and molecules in solution. Here, we present the implementation of DFT-MD IR spectroscopy in the ONETEP linear-scaling code. In addition, two methods for partitioning the dipole moment within the ONETEP framework are presented. Dipole moment partitioning allows us to compute spectra of molecules in solution, which fully include the effects of the solvent, while at the same time removing the solvent contribution from the spectra.