Real-time simulation of inelastic electron scattering using the exact, density functional, and alternative approaches
To investigate inelastic electron scattering, which is ubiquitous in various fields of study, we carry out ab initio study of the real-time dynamics of a one-dimensional electron wave packet scattered by a hydrogen atom using different methods: the exact solution, the solution provided by time-depen...
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Published in | Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP Vol. 22; no. 16; pp. 8616 - 8624 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Published |
29.04.2020
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | To investigate inelastic electron scattering, which is ubiquitous in various fields of study, we carry out
ab initio
study of the real-time dynamics of a one-dimensional electron wave packet scattered by a hydrogen atom using different methods: the exact solution, the solution provided by time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), and the solutions given by alternative approaches. This research not only sheds light on inelastic scattering processes but also verifies the capability of TDDFT in describing inelastic electron scattering. We revisit the adiabatic local-density approximation (ALDA) in describing the excitation of the target during the scattering process along with a self-interaction correction and spin-polarized calculations. Our results reveal that the ALDA severely underestimates the energy transferred in the regime of low incident energy particularly for a spin-singlet system. After demonstrating alternative approaches, we propose a hybrid
ab initio
method to deal with the kinetic correlation alongside TDDFT. This hybrid method would facilitate first-principles studies of systems in which the correlation of a few electrons among many others is of interest.
Inelastic electron scattering phenomena in chemical/physical/materials interests: electron radiation damage in materials; DNA damaged by electron scattering; electron therapy; electron microscope; electron-beam-induced deposition for nanofabrication. |
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Bibliography: | Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional figures; movie of time-evolving electron density of an incident wave packet and a bound electron. See DOI 10.1039/c9cp06376e |
ISSN: | 1463-9076 1463-9084 |
DOI: | 10.1039/c9cp06376e |