Ionic pseudopotential

Since and depend only on die valence charge densities, they can be detennined once the valence pseudo- wavefiinctions are known. Because the pseudo-wavefiinctions are nodeless, the resulting pseudopotential is well defined despite the last temi in equation Al.3.78. Once the pseudopotential has been constructed from the atom, it can be transferred to the condensed matter system of interest. For example, the ionic pseudopotential defined by equation Al.3.78 from an atomistic calculation can be transferred to condensed matter phases without any significant loss of accuracy. 

The main problem related to the use of pseudopotentials in studies of solids under pressure is to make sure that the overlap of ionic cores does not increase significantly when interatomic distances decrease. The present study is certainly not affected by this potential pitfall since Ti-O distances typically change by no more than 0.1 A over the pressure range investigated. However, theoretical studies of fluorite and related phases at pressures of around 100 GPa should be performed with added caution. 

The basic idea of the pseudopotential theory is to replace the strong electron-ion potential by a much weaker potential - a pseudopotential that can describe the salient features of the valence electrons which determine most physical properties of molecules to a much greater extent than the core electrons do. Within the pseudopotential approximation, the core electrons are totally ignored and only the behaviour of the valence electrons outside the core region is considered as important and is described as accurately as possible [54]. Thus the core electrons and the strong ionic potential are replaced by a much weaker pseudopotential which acts on the associated valence pseudo wave functions rather than the real valence wave functions (p ). As... 

It remains to construct an accurate ionic pseudopotential from first principles which will be appropriate for a variety of molecular environments. There have been some very recent developments in the construction of ab initio pseudopotentials and we will only discuss the fundamental strategies [55, 56]. 

One now has a picture of conduction electrons in the potential of the ions, which is really a collection of pseudopotentials. The energy of the electronic system obviously depends on the positions of the ions. From the electronic energy as a function of ionic positions, say Ue,(R), one could determine the equilibrium ionic configuration (interionic spacing in a crystal or ion density profile... 

Another model which combined a model for the solvent with a jellium-type model for the metal electrons was given by Badiali et a/.83 The metal electrons were supposed to be in the potential of a jellium background, plus a repulsive pseudopotential averaged over the jellium profile. The solvent was modeled as a collection of equal-sized hard spheres, charged and dipolar. In this model, the distance of closest approach of ions and molecules to the metal surface at z = 0 is fixed in terms of the molecular and ionic radii. The effect of the metal on the solution is thus that of an infinitely smooth, infinitely high barrier, as well as charged surface. The solution species are also under the influence of the electronic tail of the metal, represented by an exponential profile. 

A further simplication often used in density-functional calculations is the use of pseudopotentials. Most properties of molecules and solids are indeed determined by the valence electrons, i.e., those electrons in outer shells that take part in the bonding between atoms. The core electrons can be removed from the problem by representing the ionic core (i.e., nucleus plus inner shells of electrons) by a pseudopotential. State-of-the-art calculations employ nonlocal, norm-conserving pseudopotentials that are generated from atomic calculations and do not contain any fitting to experiment (Hamann et al., 1979). Such calculations can therefore be called ab initio, or first-principles. ... 

We can understand the behaviour of the binding energy curves of monovalent sodium and other polyvalent metals by considering the metallic bond as arising from the immersion of an ionic lattice of empty core pseudopotentials into a free-electron gas as illustrated schematically in Fig. 5.15. We have seen that the pseudopotentials will only perturb the free-electron gas weakly so that, as a first approximation, we may assume that the free-electron gas remains uniformly distributed throughout the metal. Thus, the total binding energy per atom may be written as... 

Fig. 5.15 An ionic lattice of Ashcroft empty core pseudopotentials immersed in a free-electron gas.

On longer times one nevertheless needs an explicit account of ionic motion. We then treat the ions as classical particles described within the standard framework of molecular dynamics. The force acting on the ions originates from the electrons (through pseudopotentials), from ion-ion interactions (treated as point charges) and from the external field (laser, projectile). For ion number 7, it thus reads... 

The pseudopotential method relies on the separation (in both energy and space) of electrons into core and valence electrons and implies that most physical and chemical properties of materials are determined by valence electrons in the interstitial region. One can therefore combine the full ionic potential with that of the core electrons to give an effective potential (called the pseudopotential), which acts on the valence electrons only. On top of this, one can also remove the rapid oscillations of the valence wavefunctions inside the core region such that the resulting wavefunction and potential are smooth. 

The nature of the chemical bond between ions is investigated in the perovskite-type hydrides, MMgH3 (M = Na, K, Rb), CaNiH3/ and SrPdH3 by the DV-Xx molecular orbital method. Also, the enthalpy changes in the dehydrogenation reactions are calculated using the pseudopotential method. It is found that the Mg-H bond is rather ionic, but the covalent interaction still remains to some extent. On the other hand, the M-H bond is further ionic. 

Strongly for the ionic crystals, yet the bulk modulus for the alkali halides varies as d. The cl trend for the bulk modulus will show up in the study of simple metals, and in terms of the pseudopotentials that will be used in the study of simple metals, d" -dependence takes on a particularly fundamental role. In Problem 15-3, the simple metal theory is used to give a good account of the bulk modulus in C, Si, and Gc. It should be noted also that the simple metal theory docs not give a good account of cohesive energy itself there is much cancellation between terms for that property, and there are important contributions (for example, that do not vary as... 

The concept of atomic or ionic size is one that has been debated for many years. The structure map of Figure 1 used the crystal radii of Shannon and Prewitt and these are generally used today in place of Pauling s radii. Shannon and Prewitt s values come from examination of a large database of interatomic distances, assuming that intemuclear separations are given simply by the sum of anion and cation radii. Whereas this is reasonably frue for oxides and fluorides, it is much more difficult to generate a self-consistent set of radii for sulfides, for example. A set of radii independent of experimental input would be better. The pseudopotential radius is one such estimate of atomic or orbital size. 

The delocalized (right-hand) side of Fig. 1.1 involves some form of calculation on the full lattice such as a band-theory calculation. Again, the Hartree-Fock wave function may be employed in an ab initio method or some approximate method such as Huckel band theory, or the local-exchange approximations employed leading to augmented-plane-wave or ab initio pseudopotential (PP) methods. As an alternative to band theory, the development of the ionic approach using pair potentials or modified electron-gas (MEG) theory has proved effective for certain crystalline species. 

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