The optical absorption spectra of sodium clusters (Na${}_{2n}$, $n⩽$ $4$) are calculated by using an all-electron first-principles $\mathit{GW}+$Bethe-Salpeter method with the mixed-basis approach within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation. In these small systems, the excitonic effect strongly affects the optical properties due to the confinement of exciton in the small system size. The present state-of-the-art method treats the electron-hole two-particle Green’s function by incorporating the ladder diagrams up to the infinite order and therefore takes into account the excitonic effect in a good approximation. We check the accuracy of the present method by comparing the resulting spectra with experiments. In addition, the effect of delocalization in particular in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital in the $\mathit{GW}$ quasiparticle wave function is also discussed by rediagonalizing the Dyson equation.

• Received 21 December 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.81.045201