Analytic Gradients and Derivative Couplings for Configuration Interaction with All Single Excitations and One Double Excitation -- En Route to Nonadiabatic Dynamics

Abstract

We present analytic gradients and derivative couplings for the simplest possible multireference configuration interaction method, CIS-1D, an electronic structure ansatz that includes all single excitations and one lone double excitation on top of a Hartree-Fock reference state. We show that the resulting equations are numerically stable and require the evaluation of a similar number of integrals as compared to standard CIS theory; one can easily differentiate the required frontier orbitals ($\mathtt{h}$ and $\mathtt{l}$) with minimal cost. The resulting algorithm has been implemented within the Q-Chem electronic structure package and should be immediately useful for understanding photochemistry with $S_{0}$-$S_{1}$ crossings.