First-principles calculation of nonlinear optical responses by Wannier interpolation

Abstract

Various nonlinear optical (NLO) responses, like shift current and second harmonic generation (SHG), are revealed to be closely related to topological quantities involving the Berry connection and Berry curvature. First-principles prediction of NLO responses is of great importance to fundamental research and device design, but efficient computational methods are still lacking. The main challenge is that the calculations require a very dense $k$-point sampling that is computationally expensive and a proper treatment of the gauge problem for topological quantities. Here we present a Wannier interpolation method for first-principles calculation of NLO responses, which overcomes the challenge. This method interpolates physical quantities accurately for any desired $k$ point with little computational cost and constructs a smooth gauge by the perturbation theory. To demonstrate the method, we study shift current of monolayer GeS and ${\mathrm{WS}}_{2}$ as well as SHG of bulk GaAs, getting good agreements with previous results. We show that the traditional sum rule method converges slowly with the number of bands, whereas the perturbation way does not. Moreover, our method is easily adapted to build tight-binding models for the following theoretical investigations. Last but not least, the method is compatible with most first-principles approaches, including density functional theory and beyond. With these advantages, Wannier interpolation is a promising method for first-principles studies of NLO phenomena.