Capturing Correlation Effects on Photoionization Dynamics

J Chem Theory Comput. 2021 Aug 10;17(8):5064-5079. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00303. Epub 2021 Jul 13.

Abstract

A highly correlated combination of the equation-of-motion coupled cluster (EOM-CC) Dyson orbital and the multicentric B-spline time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT)-based approach is proposed and implemented within the single-channel approximation to describe molecular photoionization processes. The twofold objective of the approach is to capture interchannel coupling effects, missing in the B-spline DFT treatment, and to explore the response of Dyson orbitals to strong correlation effects and its influence on the photoionization observables. We validate our scheme by computing partial cross sections, branching ratios, asymmetry parameters, and molecular frame photoelectron angular distributions of simple molecules. Finally, the method has been applied to the study of photoelectron spectra of the Ni(C3H5)2 molecule, where giant correlation effects completely destroy the Koopmans picture.