Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DENE (Dynamical effects on neutral excitations)
Reporting period: 2015-06-01 to 2017-05-31
1) Dynamical effects beyond the state-of the-art: theory (WP1) and coding (WP2)
Starting from the recent results obtained from the host group in the evaluation of the single particle Green’s function through a “cumulant” approach, the aim of this part of the project was to do a further step along that direction: the generalization of the theory to the two particles Green’s function that contains all the informations about neutral excitations. To this end, I derived an integro-differential equation for the two particles Green’s function and I demonstrated that in the case of a two level system coupled with a boson its solution has a cumulant structure in analogy with what happens for the single particle Green's function where all dynamical effects are included through a frequency dependent coefficient (cumulant coefficient). In a second step I generalized the theory to real systems involving infinite crystals as well as finite systems as atoms and molecules demonstrating that also in this case it is possible to find an approximate expression for the two particle Green's function with a cumulant structure. In particular I derived an expression for the cumulant coefficient in terms of an effective exciton self-energy that describes the coupling between excitons and other neutral excitations namely other excitons and plasmons. The exciton self-energy is expressed in terms of the eigenstates and eigenvalues of the excitonic hamiltonian that is diagonalized by standard numerical codes used to solve the static BSE. This make possible the implementation of the cumulant as a post processing of the static BSE. In collaboration with other members of the LSI (Dr. Matteo Gatti and Dr. Francesco Sottile) I am implementing the evaluation of the cumulanf coefficient in the EXC code, a GPL computational code that is freely available to the whole community (http://dp-code.org).
2) Scientific cases (WP3)
At the beginning the method was applied to a model system characterized by two bands coupled with a boson where the excitonic effect has been treated in two limits: strong localization (Frenkel exciton) and weak localization (Wannier exciton). The study allowed inferring a general picture of the dynamical effects and how this latter are related to the properties of the exciton as the exciton Bohr radius and exciton dispersion. Moreover I identified some features that could enhance dynamical effects as the presence of localized states and charge transfer excitations.
The application of the cumulant to model systems suggests that dynamical effects are important in systems characterized by localized states. For this reason I decided to apply the new method to the study of the optical properties of 2D and layered systems.
In particular I did standard BSE calculations on single layer and bulk hBN investigating the properties of the excitons and their dispersion as a function of the momentum transfer. I demonstrated that, due to the confinement of the electronic charge on a layer, at low momentum transfer the exciton energy is characterized by a linear dispersion relation which is a feature common to all 2D systems. In addition I demonstrated that in 2D systems the exciton band structure provides a powerful way to identify the exciton degree of localization. The work represents the first step towards the investigation of exciton dynamics in 2D that is still in progress.
Finally I plan to study strongly correlated transition metal oxides (NiO and CoO) where IXS experiments revealed the presence of multiple excitations at high momentum transfer.
Finally, DENE has been highly beneficial in facilitating my career developments at different levels:
-It supported my research at the forefront of the development of new methods in theoretical spectroscopy and their use in challenging applications of relevance for both fundamental science and technology;
-It enlarged my network of international collaborations;
-It fostered the development of an original theory-experiment synergy in the field of spectroscopy
of correlated materials.
At the same time DENE opened new collaboration opportunities for the host organisation. In fact,
I established effective international collaborations with experimental groups
performing EELS as Martin Knupfer at IFW Dresden (Germany) and IXS as Simo Huotari (University of Helsinki).