Non-linear response of solids and nanostructures: a real-time prospective
by Claudio Attaccalite, Davide Sangalli, Myrta Gruening
In recent years many theoretical approaches and computational codes have been developed
to study optical response of bulk materials, ranging from many-body perturbation
theory to density functional like methods. However the major part of these approaches are
limited to the linear optical regime. The few that are formulated in real-time are based on
time-dependent density functional theory, an approach where it is difficult to include correlation
effects especially for solids. In order to overcome these difficulties some years ago
we devised a new real-time computational approach based on dynamical Berry phase plus
many-body perturbation theory. This approach is particularly suited to study nonlinear optical
properties in crystalline solids and periodic nanostructures. In this highlight we present
an introduction to nonlinear optics in solids and how the nonlinear response can be obtained
by means of real-time simulations including correlation effects.
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