Electronic structure methods pseudopotential approximation

Also pure density-functional methods combined with plane-wave basis sets and ultrasoft pseudopotentials [58] were used in our studies of extended systems [59]. The computational efficiency of these methods enables larger systems and to some extent dynamical processes to be studied. Generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) or spin-polarized GGA DFT functionals [60, 61] were employed in the electronic structure calculations. 

A further reduction of the computational effort in investigations of electronic structure can be achieved by the restriction of the actual quantum chemical calculations to the valence electron system and the implicit inclusion of the influence of the chemically inert atomic cores by means of suitable parametrized effective (core) potentials (ECPs) and, if necessary, effective core polarization potentials (CPPs). Initiated by the pioneering work of Hellmann and Gombas around 1935, the ECP approach developed into two successful branches, i.e. the model potential (MP) and the pseudopotential (PP) techniques. Whereas the former method attempts to maintain the correct radial nodal structure of the atomic valence orbitals, the latter is formally based on the so-called pseudo-orbital transformation and uses valence orbitals with a simplified radial nodal structure, i.e. pseudovalence orbitals. Besides the computational savings due to the elimination of the core electrons, the main interest in standard ECP techniques results from the fact that they offer an efficient and accurate, albeit approximate, way of including implicitly, i.e. via parametrization of the ECPs, the major relativistic effects in formally nonrelativistic valence-only calculations. A number of reviews on ECPs has been published and the reader is referred to them for details (Bala-subramanian 1998 Bardsley 1974 Chelikowsky and Cohen 1992 Christiansen et... 

An important step towards accurate descriptions of solid ionic energetic materials has been done by Sorescu and Thompson.[104-106] They used DFT and the pseudopotential method to investigate the structural and electronic properties of AND [104, 105] and AN [106] in solid phases. The advantage of using the pseudopotential approximation is that only the valence... 

As most of the electronic structure simulation methods, we start with the Born-Oppenheimer approximation to decouple the ionic and electronic degrees of freedom. The ions are treated classically, while the electrons are described by quantum mechanics. The electronic wavefunctions are solved in the instantaneous potential created by the ions, and are assumed to evolve adiabatically during the ionic dynamics, so as to remain on the Born-Oppenheimer surface. Beyond this, the most basic approximations of the method concern the treatment of exchange and correlation (XC) and the use of pseudopotentials. XC is treated within Kohn-Sham DFT [3]. Both the local (spin) density approximation (LDA/LSDA) [16] and the generalized gradients approximation (GGA) [17] are implemented. The pseudopotentials are standard norm-conserving [18, 19], treated in the fully non-local form proposed by Kleinman and Bylander [20]. 

Hamiltonian is not known and, as for the nonrelativistic case, further approximations have to be introduced in the wavefunction, it is tempting to derive approximate computational schemes which are still sufficiently accurate but more efficient. Here we will only summarize those approximate methods that have been used frequently to obtain information about the electronic structure of molecules with lanthanide atoms, i.e. relativistically corrected density-functional approach, pseudopotential method, intermediate neglect of differential overlap method, extended Huckel theory, and ligand field theory. 

The electronic structure for the MgO crystal was calculated in [608] both in the LCAO approximation and in the PW basis. In both cases the calculations were done by the density-functional theory (DFT) method in the local density approximation (LD A). The Monkhorst Pack set of special points of BZ, which allows a convergence to be obtained (relating to extended special-points sets) in the calculations of electronic structure, was used in both cases. For the LCAO calculations the Durand Barthelat pseudopotential [484] was used. In the case of the PW calculations the normconserving pseudopotential and a PW kinetic energy cutoff of 300 eV were used. 

An efficient way to solve a many-electron problem is to apply the pseudopotential (PP) approximation. Pseudopotential calculations are less accurate than all-electron, but they simulate the results of the latter often surprisingly well, for substantially smaller expenses [69]. The methods are widely used in electronic structure theory for chemically interesting compounds of all elements of the Periodic Table including the heaviest. There are several excellent reviews on this type of methods (see, e.g., [70, 71]). 

Abstract We summarize an ab-initio real-space approach to electronic structure calculations based on the finite-element method. This approach brings a new quality to solving Kohn Sham equations, calculating electronic states, total energy, Hellmann-Feynman forces and material properties particularly for non-crystalline, non-periodic structures. Precise, fully non-local, environment-reflecting real-space ab-initio pseudopotentials increase the efficiency by treating the core-electrons separately, without imposing any kind of frozen-core approximation. Contrary to the variety of well established k-space methods that are based on Bloch s theorem... 

The pseudopotential approximation was originally introduced by Hellmann already in 1935 for a semiempirical treatment of the valence electron of potassium [25], However, it took until 1959 for Phillips and Kleinman from the solid state community to provide a rigorous theoretical foundation of PPs for single valence electron systems [26]. Another decade later in 1968 Weeks and Rice extended this method to many valence electron systems [27,28], Although the modern PPs do not have much in common with the PPs developed in 1959 and 1968, respectively, these theories prove that one can get the same answer as from an AE calculation by using a suitable effective valence-only model Hamiltonian and pseudovalence orbitals with a simplified nodal structure [19],... 

The relaxation of the structure in the KMC-DR method was done using an approach based on the density functional theory and linear combination of atomic orbitals implemented in the Siesta code [97]. The minimum basis set of localized numerical orbitals of Sankey type [98] was used for all atoms except silicon atoms near the interface, for which polarization functions were added to improve the description of the SiOx layer. The core electrons were replaced with norm-conserving Troullier-Martins pseudopotentials [99] (Zr atoms also include 4p electrons in the valence shell). Calculations were done in the local density approximation (LDA) of DFT. The grid in the real space for the calculation of matrix elements has an equivalent cutoff energy of 60 Ry. The standard diagonalization scheme with Pulay mixing was used to get a self-consistent solution. In the framework of the KMC-DR method, it is not necessary to perform an accurate optimization of the structure, since structure relaxation is performed many times. 

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