Based on our earlier works [X. Zheng et al., Phys. Rev. B 75, 195127 (2007); J. S. Jin et al., J. Chem. Phys. 128, 234703 (2008)], we propose a rigorous and numerically convenient approach to simulate time-dependent quantum transport from first-principles. The proposed approach combines time-dependent density functional theory with quantum dissipation theory, and results in a useful tool for studying transient dynamics of electronic systems. Within the proposed exact theoretical framework, we construct a number of practical schemes for simulating realistic systems such as nanoscopic electronic devices. Computational cost of each scheme is analyzed, with the expected level of accuracy discussed. As a demonstration, a simulation based on the adiabatic wide-band limit approximation scheme is carried out to characterize the transient current response of a carbon nanotube based electronic device under time-dependent external voltages.

Basing on our hierarchical equations of motion for time-dependent quantum transport [X. Zheng, G. H. Chen, Y. Mo, S. K. Koo, H. Tian, C. Y. Yam, and Y. J. Yan, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 114101 (2010)], we develop an efficient and accurate numerical algorithm to solve the Liouville-von-Neumann equation. We solve the real-time evolution of the reduced single-electron density matrix at the tight-binding level. Calculations are carried out to simulate the transient current through a linear chain of atoms, with each represented by a single orbital. The self-energy matrix is expanded in terms of multiple Lorentzian functions, and the Fermi distribution function is evaluated via the Padè spectrum decomposition. This Lorentzian-Padè decomposition scheme is employed to simulate the transient current. With sufficient Lorentzian functions used to fit the self-energy matrices, we show that the lead spectral function and the dynamics response can be treated accurately. Compared to the conventional master equation approaches, our method is much more efficient as the computational time scales cubically with the system size and linearly with the simulation time. As a result, the simulations of the transient currents through systems containing up to one hundred of atoms have been carried out. As density functional theory is also an effective one-particle theory, the Lorentzian-Padè decomposition scheme developed here can be generalized for first-principles simulation of realistic systems.

The primary issue in molecular electronics is measuring and understanding how electrons travel through a single molecule strung between two electrodes. A key area involves electronic interference that occurs when electrons can follow more than one pathway through the molecular entity. When the phases developed along parallel pathways are inequivalent, interference effects can substantially reduce overall conductance. This fundamentally interesting issue can be understood using classical rules of physical organic chemistry, and the subject has been examined broadly. However, there has been little dynamical study of such interference effects. Here, we use the simplest electronic structure model to examine the coherent time-dependent transport through meta- and para-linked benzene circuits, and the effects of decoherence. We find that the phase-caused coherence/decoherence behavior is established very quickly (femtoseconds), that the localized dephasing at any site reduces the destructive interference of the meta-linked species (raising the conductance), and that thermal effects are essentially ineffectual for removing coherence effects.

Application of quantum dissipation theory to electronic dynamics has been limited to model systems with few energy levels, and its numerical solutions are mostly restricted to high temperatures. A highly accurate and efficient numerical algorithm, which is based on the Chebyshev spectral method, is developed to integrate a single-particle Liouville-von Neumann equation, and the two long-standing limitations of quantum dissipation theory are resolved in the context of quantum transport. Its computational time scales to O(N(3)) with N being the number of orbitals involved, which leads to a reality for the quantum mechanical simulation of real open systems containing hundreds or thousands of atomic orbitals. More importantly, the algorithm spans both finite and zero temperatures. Numerical calculations are carried out to simulate the transient current through a metallic wire containing up to 1000 orbitals.