LDAUTYPE

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LDAUTYPE = 1 | 2 | 4
Default: LDAUTYPE = 2 

Description: LDAUTYPE specifies which type of DFT+U approach will be used.


The semilocal LDA and GGA functionals often fail to describe systems with localized (strongly correlated) d and f-electrons (this manifests itself primarily in the form of unrealistic one-electron energies and too small magnetic moments). In some cases this can be remedied by introducing a strong intra-atomic interaction in a (screened) Hartree-Fock like manner, as an on-site replacement of the semilocal functional. This approach is commonly known as the DFT+U method. Setting LDAU=.TRUE. in the INCAR file switches on DFT+U. The first VASP DFT+U calculations, including some additional technical details on the VASP implementation, can be found in Ref. [1] (the original implementation was done by Olivier Bengone [2] and Georg Kresse).

  • LDAUTYPE=1: The rotationally invariant DFT+U introduced by Liechtenstein et al.[3]
This particular flavour of DFT+U is of the form
and is determined by the PAW on-site occupancies
and the (unscreened) on-site electron-electron interaction
where |m⟩ are real spherical harmonics of angular momentum =LDAUL.
The unscreened e-e interaction Uγ1γ3γ2γ4 can be written in terms of the Slater integrals , , , and (f-electrons). Using values for the Slater integrals calculated from atomic orbitals, however, would lead to a large overestimation of the true e-e interaction, since in solids the Coulomb interaction is screened (especially ).
In practice these integrals are often treated as parameters, i.e., adjusted to reach agreement with experiment for a property like the equilibrium volume, the magnetic moment or the band gap. They are normally specified in terms of the effective on-site Coulomb- and exchange parameters, and (LDAUU and LDAUJ, respectively). and can also be extracted from constrained-LSDA calculations.
These translate into values for the Slater integrals in the following way (as implemented in VASP at the moment):
- -
-
The essence of the DFT+U method consists of the assumption that one may now write the total energy as:
where the Hartree-Fock like interaction replaces the LSDA on site due to the fact that one subtracts a double counting energy , which supposedly equals the on-site LSDA contribution to the total energy,
  • LDAUTYPE=2: The simplified (rotationally invariant) approach to the DFT+U, introduced by Dudarev et al.[4]
This flavour of DFT+U is of the following form:
This can be understood as adding a penalty functional to the LSDA total energy expression that forces the on-site occupancy matrix in the direction of idempotency,
.
Real matrices are only idempotent when their eigenvalues are either 1 or 0, which for an occupancy matrix translates to either fully occupied or fully unoccupied levels.
Note: in Dudarev's approach the parameters and do not enter seperately, only the difference is meaningful.
  • LDAUTYPE=4: same as LDAUTYPE=1, but LDA+U instead of LSDA+U (i.e. no LSDA exchange splitting).
In the LDA+U case the double counting energy is given by,

Warning: it is important to be aware of the fact that when using the L(S)DA+U, in general the total energy will depend on the parameters and (LDAUU and LDAUJ, respectively). It is therefore not meaningful to compare the total energies resulting from calculations with different and/or , or and in case of Dudarev's approach (LDAUTYPE=2).

Note on bandstructure calculation: the CHGCAR file contains only information up to angular momentum quantum number L=LMAXMIX for the on-site PAW occupancy matrices. When the CHGCAR file is read and kept fixed in the course of the calculations (ICHARG=11), the results will be necessarily not identical to a selfconsistent run. The deviations are often large for L(S)DA+U calculations. For the calculation of band structures within the L(S)DA+U approach, it is hence strictly required to increase LMAXMIX to 4 (d elements) and 6 (f elements).

Related Tags and Sections

LDAU, LDAUL, LDAUU, LDAUJ, LDAUPRINT, LMAXMIX

Examples that use this tag

References


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