Optics of semiconductors from meta-GGA-based time-dependent density-functional theory

We calculate the optical spectra of silicon and germanium in the adiabatic time-dependent density functional formalism, making use of kinetic energy density-dependent (meta-GGA) exchange-correlation functionals. We find excellent agreement between theory and experiment. The success of the theory on this notoriously difficult problem is traced to the fact that the exchange-correlation kernel of meta-GGA supports a singularity of the form $\alpha/q^2$ (where $q$ is the wave-vector and $\alpha$ is a constant), whereas previously employed approximations (e.g. local density and generalized gradient approximations) do not. Thus, the use of the adiabatic meta-GGA opens a new path for handling the extreme non-locality of the time-dependent exchange-correlation potential in solid-state systems.