Explicit core-hole single-particle methods for L- and M-edge x-ray absorption and electron energy-loss spectra

Author(s)
Esther A.B. Johnsen, Naoki Horiuchi, Toma Susi, Michael Walter
Abstract

Single-particle methods based on Kohn-Sham unoccupied states to describe near-edge X-ray absorption (XAS) spectra are routinely applied for the description of K-edge spectra, as there is no complication due to spin-orbit (SO) coupling. L- and M-edge spectra are often addressed via variants of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) based on SO calculations. Here, we present a computationally efficient implementation based on single-particle calculations with core holes within the frozen-core approximation. Combined with a semiempirical energy shift and a fixed SO splitting for each core level, this allows for a computationally cheap, while overall accurate, prediction of experimental spectra on the absolute energy scale. The spectra are compared to about 40 times slower linear-response TDDFT calculations for molecules and show similar or even better matches with experiment. An exception is multiplet effects that we analyze in detail and show that they cannot be covered by a single-particle approximation. A similar picture emerges for solids, where good qualitative and sometimes even quantitative agreement to experimental XAS and electron energy-loss spectra is achieved.

Organisation(s)
Physics of Nanostructured Materials
External organisation(s)
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, MikroTribologie Centrum µTC
Journal
Journal of Chemical Physics
Volume
163
No. of pages
14
ISSN
0021-9606
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2504.08458
Publication date
08-2025
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103018 Materials physics, 103006 Chemical physics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Physics and Astronomy, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0635c313-af8f-476a-a9cd-3f57a9028bcb