Electronic coupling matrix elements from charge constrained density functional theory calculations using a plane wave basis set

We present a plane wave basis set implementation for the calculation of electronic coupling matrix elements of electron transfer reactions within the framework of constrained density functional theory (CDFT). Following the work of Wu and Van Voorhis J. Chem. Phys. 125, 164105 (2006)], the diabatic wavefunctions are approximated by the Kohn-Sham determinants obtained from CDFT calculations, and the coupling matrix element calculated by an efficient integration scheme. Our results for intermolecular electron transfer in small systems agree very well with high-level ab initio calculations based on generalized Mulliken-Hush theory, and with previous local basis set CDFT calculations. The effect of thermal fluctuations on the coupling matrix element is demonstrated for intramolecular electron transfer in the tetrathiafulvalene-diquinone (Q-TTF-Q(-)) anion. Sampling the electronic coupling along density functional based molecular dynamics trajectories, we find that thermal fluctuations, in particular the slow bending motion of the molecule, can lead to changes in the instantaneous electron transfer rate by more than an order of magnitude. The thermal average, (<|H(ab)|(2)>)(1/2)=6.7 mH, is significantly higher than the value obtained for the minimum energy structure, |H(ab)|=3.8 mH. While CDFT in combination with generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functionals describes the intermolecular electron transfer in the studied systems well, exact exchange is required for Q-TTF-Q(-) in order to obtain coupling matrix elements in agreement with experiment (3.9 mH). The implementation presented opens up the possibility to compute electronic coupling matrix elements for extended systems where donor, acceptor, and the environment are treated at the quantum mechanical (QM) level.