Ab initio calculation of the C∕D ratio of magnetic circular dichroism

A procedure for calculating the magnetic circular dichroism C/D ratio from density functional theory calculations is discussed. The method is simplified considerably through the application of group theory and the irreducible-tensor method and only requires integrals of the magnetic dipole moment operator over a few orbitals and published tables of symmetry factors. The implementation of the method is tested through application to several small and medium-sized molecules.