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The theoretical treatment of homogeneous static magnetic fields in periodic systems is challenging, as the corresponding vector potential breaks the translational invariance of the Hamiltonian. Based on density operators and perturbation theory, we propose for insulators a periodic framework for the treatment of magnetic fields up to arbitrary order of perturbation, similar to widely used schemes for electric fields. The second-order term delivers a new, remarkably simple formulation of the macroscopic orbital magnetic susceptibility for periodic insulators. We validate the latter expression using a tight-binding model, analytically from the present theory and numerically from the large-size limit of a finite cluster, with excellent numerical agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In order to allow different software applications, in constant evolution, to interact and exchange data, flexible file formats are needed. A file format specification for different types of content has been elaborated to allow communication of data for the software developed within the European Network of Excellence “NANOQUANTA”, focusing on first-principles calculations of materials and nanosystems. It might be used by other software as well, and is described here in detail. The format relies on the NetCDF binary input/output library, already used in many different scientific communities, that provides flexibility as well as portability across languages and platforms. Thanks to NetCDF, the content can be accessed by keywords, ensuring the file format is extensible and backward compatible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The density functional theory (DFT) computation of electronic structure, total energy and other properties of materials, is a field in constant progress. In order to stay at the forefront of knowledge, a DFT software project can benefit enormously from widespread collaboration, if handled properly. Also, modern software engineering concepts can considerably ease its development. The ABINIT project relies upon these ideas: freedom of sources, reliability, portability, and self-documentation are emphasised, in the development of a sophisticated plane-wave pseudopotential code.We describe ABINITv3.0, distributed under the GNU General Public License. The list of ABINITv3.0 capabilities is presented, as well as the different software techniques that have been used until now: PERL scripts and CPP directives treat a unique set of FORTRAN90 source files to generate sequential (or parallel) object code for many different platforms; more than 200 automated tests secure existing capabilities; strict coding rules are followed; the documentation is extensive, including online help files, tutorials, and HTML-formatted sources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents calculations of the cohesive energy and bulk moduli of two hypothetical, negatively curved carbon networks. Finds that both have a cohesive energy smaller than that of graphite but significantly greater than that of C60. Stability of fullerenes; Euler's theorem; More.

We show that density functional theory within the RPA (random phase approximation for the exchange-correlation energy) provides a correct description of bond dissociation in H2 in a spin-restricted Kohn–Sham formalism, i.e., without artificial symmetry breaking. We present accurate adiabatic connection curves both at equilibrium and beyond the Coulson–Fisher point. The strong curvature at large bond length implies important static (left–right) correlation, justifying modern hybrid functional constructions but also demonstrating their limitations. Although exact at infinite separation and accurate near the equilibrium bond length, the RPA dissociation curve displays unphysical repulsion at larger but finite bond lengths. Going beyond the RPA by including the exact exchange kernel (RPA+X), we find a similar repulsion. We argue that this deficiency is due to the absence of double excitations in adiabatic linear response theory. Further analyzing the H2 dissociation limit we show that the RPA+X is not size consistent, in contrast to the RPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linear-response Sham-Schlüter equation can be used to calculate an exchange-correlation potential starting from a given approximation for the self-energy. The asymptotic behavior of these potentials is, however, much debated, a recent work suggesting that they could blow up in finite systems. Here we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the linear-response Sham-Schlüter potentials in the GW and second-order approximations for the self-energy. We show that these potentials do not diverge, and that the correlation potential itself has a -α/(2r[SUP4]) tail (under appropriate conditions), where a depends on the self-energy. We also provide further justification for the quasiparticle approximation to the linear-response Sham-Schlüter equation, that is much simpler to solve while likely being of comparable accuracy. Calculations for real molecules or solids using this approximation should be within the reach of present computers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron-phonon interaction plays a crucial role in many fields of physics and chemistry. Nevertheless, its actual calculation by means of modern many-body perturbation theory is weakened by the use of model Hamiltonians that are based on parameters difficult to extract from the experiments. Such shortcoming can be bypassed by using density-functional theory to evaluate the electron-phonon scattering amplitudes, phonon frequencies, and electronic bare energies. In this work, we discuss how a consistent many-body diagrammatic expansion can be constructed on top of density-functional theory. In that context, the role played by screening and self-consistency when all the components of the electron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions are taken into account, is paramount. A way to avoid overscreening is notably presented. Finally, we derive cancellation rules as well as internal consistency constraints in order to draw a clear, sound, and practical scheme to merge the many-body perturbation and density-functional theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using density functional theory, we investigate the structural, vibrational, and dielectric properties of titanium oxides and silicates, which have attracted considerable attention in the framework of the quest for alternative high-κ materials. For the oxides, three crystalline phases of titanium dioxide are considered. The first two are hypothetical; they are obtained by similarity with the cubic and tetragonal structure of zirconia ZrO2 or hafnia HfO2. The third is the rutile, a crystal that occurs naturally. For the silicates, we analyze a hypothetical TiSiO4 structure constructed by analogy with crystalline ZrSiO4 and HfSiO4 (zircon and hafnon). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the asymptotic behavior of the exchange-correlation potentials deriving from orbital- and energy-dependent (OED) functionals potentially able to describe van der Waals interactions. We take some simple functionals based on the adiabatic connection fluctuation-dissipation (ACFD) theorem as examples. Although the potentials deriving from arbitrary OED functionals can be expected to diverge asymptotically, we find that these ACFD potentials are in fact well behaved. They indeed depend on Kohn—Sham orbitals and energies only through the Kohn—Sham Green function, allowing for complete analytical treatment. However, the dependence on the empty Kohn—Sham orbitals and energies must be treated with care. We discuss some precautions to be taken for practical calculation of these potentials. Last, we introduce approximate potentials, which are much simpler to compute than the exact ones, but are still quite accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cationization of sputtered organic species via metal particle adduction is investigated using poly-4-methylstyrene molecules in combination with Cu, Pd, Ag and Au substrates. Metal-cationization occurs for these four substrates. The cationized molecule yields vary with the considered substrate and they are not correlated with the metal ion yields. In addition, double cationization with two metal particles is observed with a very significant intensity for Cu, Ag and Au supports. We interpret the results with an emission scheme in which excited molecules and metal atoms recombine above the surface and decay via electron emission, thereby locking the complex in the ionic state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A scenario of metal cationization in which the organic molecule combines with a neutral excited metal atom is proposed. Ionization of the nascent complex occurs via ejection of an electron during the association process. Electron structure calculations for the model systems C6H6+Me (Me=Ag, Cu, Au) using the density functional theory give a strong argument in favor of the proposed mechanism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The cationization of sputtered organic species via metal particle adduction is investigated using a series of molecules and metallic substrates. Analyte molecules include styrene-based oligomers with various molecular weights, poly(methyl methacrylate) and a polymer additive. The chosen substrates are Al, Cr, Cu, Pd, Ag, In, Au and Pb. Metal-cationization occurs for all the substrates except Al. The cationized molecule yields vary strongly with the considered molecule and substrate and they are not correlated with the metal ion yields. In addition, double cationization with two metal particles is observed in specific cases (Cu, Pd, Ag, and Au supports, styrene-based polymers with ∼13 repeat units or more). The combination of electronic structure calculations, molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo simulations supports an emission scheme in which excited molecules and metal atoms recombine above the surface and decay via electron emission, thereby locking the complex in the ionic state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The renormalization of electronic eigenenergies due to electron-phonon coupling (temperature dependence and zero-point motion effect) is sizable in many materials with light atoms. This effect, often neglected in ab initio calculations, can be computed using the perturbation-based Allen-Heine- Cardona theory in the adiabatic or non-adiabatic harmonic approximation. After a short description of the recent progresses in this field and a brief overview of the theory, we focus on the issue of phonon wavevector sampling convergence, until now poorly understood. Indeed, the renormalization is obtained numerically through a slowly converging q-point integration. For non-zero Born effective charges, we show that a divergence appears in the electron-phonon matrix elements at q G, leading to a divergence of the adiabatic renormalization at band extrema. This problem is exacerbated by the slow convergence of Born effective charges with electronic wavevector sampling, which leaves residual Born effective charges in ab initio calculations on materials that are physically devoid of such charges. Here, we propose a solution that improves this convergence. However, for materials where Born effective charges are physically non-zero, the divergence of the renormalization indicates a breakdown of the adiabatic harmonic approximation, which we assess here by switching to the non-adiabatic harmonic approximation. Also, we study the convergence behavior of the renormalization and develop reliable extrapolation schemes to obtain the converged results. Finally, the adiabatic and non-adiabatic theories, with corrections for the slow Born effective charge convergence problem (and the associated divergence) are applied to the study of five semiconductors and insulators: a-A1N, β-A1N, BN, diamond, and silicon. For these five materials, we present the zero-point renormalization, temperature dependence, phonon-induced lifetime broadening, and the renormalized electronic band structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural, electronic, vibrational, and dielectric properties of LaBGeO5 with the stillwellite structure are determined based on ab initio density functional theory. The theoretically relaxed structure is found to agree well with the existing experimental data with a deviation of less than 0.2%. Both the density of states and the electronic band structure are calculated, showing five distinct groups of valence bands. Furthermore, the Born effective charge, the dielectric permittivity tensors, and the vibrational frequencies at the center of the Brillouin zone are all obtained. Compared to existing model calculations, the vibrational frequencies are found in much better agreement with the published experimental infrared and Raman data, with absolute and relative1 firms values of 6.04 cm-1, and 1.81%, respectively. Consequently, numerical values for both the parallel and perpendicular components of the permittivity tensor are established as 3.55 and 3.71 (10.34 and 12.28), respectively, for the high-(low-)frequency limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for new materials based on computational screening relies on methods that accurately predict, in an automatic manner, total energy, atomic-scale geometries, and other fundamental characteristics of materials. Many technologically important material properties directly stem from the electronic structure of a material, but the usual workhorse for total energies, namely density-functional theory, is plagued by fundamental shortcomings and errors from approximate exchange-correlation functionals in its prediction of the electronic structure. At variance, the GW method is currently the state-of-the-art ab initio approach for accurate electronic structure. It is mostly used to perturbatively correct density-functional theory results, but is, however, computationally demanding and also requires expert knowledge to give accurate results. Accordingly, it is not presently used in high-throughput screening: fully automatized algorithms for setting up the calculations and determining convergence are lacking. In this paper, we develop such a method and, as a first application, use it to validate the accuracy of G0W0 using the PBE starting point and the Godby-Needs plasmon-pole model (G0W0GN@PBE) on a set of about 80 solids. The results of the automatic convergence study utilized provide valuable insights. Indeed, we find correlations between computational parameters that can be used to further improve the automatization of GW calculations. Moreover, we find that G0W0GN@PBE shows a correlation between the PBE and the G0W0GN@PBE gaps that is much stronger than that between GW and experimental gaps. However, the G0W0GN@PBE gaps still describe the experimental gaps more accurately than a linear model based on the PBE gaps. With this paper, we hence show that GW can be made automatic and is more accurate than using an empirical correction of the PBE gap, but that, for accurate predictive results for a broad class of materials, an improved starting point or some type of self-consistency is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renormalization of the band structure at zero temperature due to electron-phonon coupling is explored in diamond, BN, LiF, and MgO crystals. We implement a dynamical scheme to compute the frequency-dependent self-energy and the resulting quasiparticle electronic structure. Our calculations reveal the presence of a satellite band below the Fermi level of LiF and MgO. We show that the renormalization factor (Z), which is neglected in the adiabatic approximation, can reduce the zero-point renormalization (ZPR) by as much as 40%. Anharmonic effects in the renormalized eigenvalues at finite atomic displacements are explored with the frozen-phonon method. We use a nonperturbative expression for the ZPR, going beyond the Allen-Heine-Cardona theory. Our results indicate that high-order electron-phonon coupling terms contribute significantly to the zero-point renormalization for certain materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renormalization of electronic eigenenergies due to electron-phonon interactions (temperature dependence and zero-point motion effect) is important in many materials. We address it in the adiabatic harmonic approximation, based on first principles (e.g., density-functional theory), from different points of view: directly from atomic position fluctuations or, alternatively, from Janak's theorem generalized to the case where the Helmholtz free energy, including the vibrational entropy, is used. We prove their equivalence, based on the usual form of Janak's theorem and on the dynamical equation. We then also place the Allen-Heine-Cardona (AHC) theory of the renormalization in a first-principles context. The AHC theory relies on the rigid-ion approximation, and naturally leads to a self-energy (Fan) contribution and a Debye-Waller contribution. Such a splitting can also be done for the complete harmonic adiabatic expression, in which the rigid-ion approximation is not required. A numerical study within the density-functional perturbation theory framework allows us to compare the AHC theory with frozen-phonon calculations, with or without the rigid-ion approximation. For the two different numerical approaches without non-rigid-ion terms, the agreement is better than 7 μeV in the case of diamond, which represent an agreement tof ive significant digits. The magnitude of the non-rigid-ion terms in this case is also presented, distinguishing specific phonon modes contributions to different electronic eigenenergies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the effects of three different types of applied compressive stress on the structural, electronic and optical properties of rutile SnO 2 . We use standard density functional theory (DFT) to determine the structural parameters. The effective masses and the electronic band gap, as well as their stress derivatives, are computed within both DFT and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). The stress derivatives for the SnO 2 direct band gap are determined to be 62, 38 and 25 meV/GPa within MBPT for applied hydrostatic, biaxial and uniaxial stress, respectively. Compared to DFT, this is a clear improvement with respect to available experimental data. We also estimate the exciton binding energies and their stress coefficients and compute the absorption spectrum by solving the Bethe–Salpeter equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Theoretical non-linear susceptibility, electro-optic coefficients, Raman intensities. [•] Decomposition of the electro-optic tensor in phonon mode contributions. [•] Prediction of the frequencies of the silent phonon modes. [•] Detailed analysis of the Born effective charge tensor and its anisotropy. [•] Assessment of the predictive power of the theoretical formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute the zero-point renormalization (ZPR) of the optical band gap of diamond from many-body perturbation theory using the perturbative G0W0 approximation as well as quasiparticle self-consistent GW. The electron-phonon coupling energies are found to be more than 40% higher than standard density functional theory when many-body effects are included with the frozen-phonon calculations. A similar increase is observed for the zero-point renormalization in GaAs when G0W0 corrections are applied. We show that these many-body corrections are necessary to accurately predict the temperature dependence of the band gap. The frozen-phonon method also allows us to validate the rigid-ion approximation which is always present in density functional perturbation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We verify the zero-point motion modification of the band gap between Abinit and QE/Yambo. [•] An agreement below 2meV between the two codes is obtained, converged toward 409meV. [•] We have sorted out the discrepancy in the literature. [•] We report an extensive convergence study (random/homogeneous wavevectors). [•] The influence of the pseudopotential choices is below 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of colors in historical paintings affects our cultural heritage in both museums and archeological sites. Despite intensive experimental studies, the origin of darkening of one of the most ancient pigments known to humankind, vermilion (α-HgS), remains unexplained. Here, by combining many-body theoretical spectroscopy and high-resolution microscopic x-ray diffraction, we clarify the composition of the damaged paint work and demonstrate possible physicochemical processes, induced by illumination and exposure to humidity and air, that cause photoactivation of the original pigment and the degradation of the secondary minerals. The results suggest a new path for the darkening process which was never considered by previous studies and prompt a critical examination of their findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ba3Si6O12N2:Eu2+ and Ba3Si6O9N4:Eu2+ have strikingly similar atomistic structures, but the former is an efficient green phosphor at working temperature while the latter is a bluish-green phosphor whose luminescence decreases quite fast with temperature. Aiming at the understanding of such different behavior, we compute the quasiparticle electronic band structure of the two hosts, Ba3Si6O12N2 and Ba3Si6O9N4, thanks to many-body perturbation theory in the G0W0 approximation. The gap differs by about 0.43 eV. We analyze the eigenfunctions at the top of the valence band, at the bottom of the conduction band, and also the chemical shifts for the Ba site in the two hosts. The valence bands, directly impacted by the different stoichiometric ratio, are not thought to play a large role in the luminescence. Deceivingly, the dispersive bottom of the conduction band, directly related to luminescent properties, is similar in both compounds. The spatial topology of the probability density of the bottom of the conduction bands differs, as well as the location of the 5d peak, with a much higher energy than the bottom of the conduction band in Ba3Si6O12N2 than in Ba3Si6O9N4. Electromagnetic absorption spectra are also computed for both compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic band structures of MoS2 monolayer and 2H1 bulk polytype are studied within density-functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory (GW approximation). Interlayer van der Waals (vdW) interactions, responsible for bulk binding, are calculated with the postprocessing Wannier functions method. From both fat bands and Wannier functions analysis, it is shown that the transition from a direct band gap in the monolayer to an indirect band gap in bilayer or bulk systems is triggered by medium- to short-range electronic interactions between adjacent layers, which arise at the equilibrium interlayer distance determined by the balance between vdW attraction and exchange repulsion. The semiconductor-to-semimetal (S-SM) transition is found from both theoretical methods: around c = 10.7 Å and c = 9.9 Å for DFT and GW, respectively. A metallic transition is also observed for the interlayer distance c = 9.7 Å. Dirac conelike band structures and linear bands near Fermi level are found for shorter c lattice parameter values. The VdW correction to total energy was used to estimate the pressure at which S-SM transition takes place from a fitting to a model equation of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We confirm the indirect character of the CaS and CaO bandgaps. [•] The absorption spectra of CaS/CaO were computed including exciton using BSE formula. [•] We report a value of 0.27eV (CaS) and 0.40eV (CaO) for exciton energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining the local spin density approximation (LSDA)+U and an analysis of superexchange interactions beyond density functional theory, we describe the magnetic ground state of Cr-doped TiO2, an intensively studied and debated dilute magnetic oxide. In parallel, we correct our LSDA+U (+ superexchange) ground state through GW corrections (GW@LSDA+U) that reproduce the position of the impurity states and the band gaps in satisfying agreement with experiments. Because of the different topological coordinations of Cr-Cr bonds in the ground states of rutile and anatase, superexchange interactions induce either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic couplings of Cr ions. In Cr-doped anatase, this interaction leads to a new mechanism which stabilizes a (nonrobust) ferromagnetic ground state, in keeping with experimental evidence, without the need to invoke F-center exchange. The interplay between structural defects and vacancies in contributing to the superexchange is also unveiled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Computation of the effect of finite homogeneous electric fields in periodic systems is described in the context of the projector augmented wave formalism. Generalizing previous norm-conserving implementations, we compute the polarization using the approach of King-Smith and Vanderbilt [Phys. Rev. B 47 (1993) 1651] fully within the projector augmented wave framework, and then minimizing the electric field enthalpy. Applications to simple systems are provided, including both linear and nonlinear field effects, and photoelastic response. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Carefully converged calculations are performed for the band gap of ZnO within many-body perturbation theory (G0W0 approximation). The results obtained using four different well-established plasmon-pole models are compared with those of explicit calculations without such models (the contour-deformation approach). This comparison shows that, surprisingly, plasmon-pole models depending on the f-sum rule gives less precise results. In particular, it confirms that the band gap of ZnO is underestimated in the G0W0 approach as compared to experiment, contrary to the recent claim of Shih et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 146401 (2010)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from fully converged density-functional theory calculations, the quasiparticle corrections are calculated for different sized Si and Ge nanowires using the GW approximation. The effectiveness of recently developed techniques in speeding up the convergence of the quasiparticle calculations is demonstrated. The complete quasiparticle band structures are also obtained using an interpolation technique based on maximallylocalized Wannier functions. From the quasiparticle results, we assess the correctness of the commonly applied scissor-shift correction. Dispersion changes are observed, which are also reflected in changes in the effective band masses calculated taking into account quasiparticle corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (2005) 101(6) 793– 801 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The evolution of an organic molecule after sputtering from a gold surface has been analyzed by classical molecular dynamics and ab initio calculations to gain insight into the ionization and fragmentation processes occurring in SIMS. The calculated ionization potential (6.2eV) of the tetraphenylnaphthalene (TPN) molecule has been found to be close to the unimolecular dissociation energy (5.4eV) of the most favorable reaction channel involving the loss of a phenyl ring. On the other hand, our calculations show that the internal energies of sputtered TPN molecules can be significantly larger than 5–6eV. Therefore, it appears energetically possible to relax such excited molecules via both fragmentation and ionization. We propose to virtually decompose the TPN molecule into its basic fragments. The rationale is that, if the molecule is very excited, then separate parts (e.g. pendant phenyl rings) can interact with each other almost independently. The analysis of the molecular motion after emission shows that the oscillations along the phenyl-naphthalene bond direction, expected to induce the molecule fragmentation by the loss of a phenyl ring, are relatively small (they store only about 0.2eV). On the other hand, the relative energy stored in the inter-phenyl interactions, modulated by their bending and responsible for ionization according to our hypothesis, oscillates over a range of 6–7eV and favors ionization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a promising material as an absorber in photovoltaic applications. The measured efficiency, however, is far from the theoretically predicted value for the known CZTS phases. To improve the understanding of this discrepancy, we investigate the structural, dynamical, and dielectric properties of the three main phases of CZTS (kesterite, stannite, and PMCA) using density functional perturbation theory (DFPT). The effect of the exchange-correlation functional on the computed properties is analyzed. A qualitative agreement of the theoretical Raman spectrum with measurements is observed. However, none of the phases correspond to the experimental spectrum within the error bar that is usually to be expected for DFPT. This corroborates the need to consider cation disorder and other lattice defects extensively in this material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge of effective masses is a key ingredient to analyze numerous properties of semiconductors, like carrier mobilities, (magneto)transport properties, or band extrema characteristics yielding carrier densities and density of states. Currently, these masses are usually calculated using finite-difference estimation of density functional theory (DFT) electronic band curvatures. However, finite differences require an additional convergence study and are prone to numerical noise. Moreover, the concept of effective mass breaks down at degenerate band extrema. We assess the former limitation by developing a method that allows to obtain the Hessian of DFT bands directly, using density functional perturbation theory. Then, we solve the latter issue by adapting the concept of "transport equivalent effective mass" to the k·p framework. The numerical noise inherent to finite-difference methods is thus eliminated, along with the associated convergence study. The resulting method is therefore more general, more robust, and simpler to use, which makes it especially appropriate for high-throughput computing. After validating the developed techniques, we apply them to the study of silicon, graphane, and arsenic. The formalism is implemented into the abinit software and supports the norm-conserving pseudopotential approach, the projector augmented-wave method, and the inclusion of spin-orbit coupling. The derived expressions also apply to the ultrasoft pseudopotential method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]