LDAUTYPE

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

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

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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 (traditionally called L(S)DA+U). 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. (the original implementation was done by Olivier Bengone and Georg Kresse).

• LDAUTYPE=1: The rotationally invariant DFT+U introduced by Liechtenstein et al.

This particular flavour of DFT+U is of the form

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://www.vasp.at/wiki/restbase/vasp.at/v1/":): E_{{{\rm {HF}}}}={\frac {1}{2}}\sum _{{\{\gamma \}}}(U_{{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{3}\gamma _{2}\gamma _{4}}}-U_{{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{3}\gamma _{4}\gamma _{2}}}){{\hat n}}_{{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{2}}}{{\hat n}}_{{\gamma _{3}\gamma _{4}}}

and is determined by the PAW on-site occupancies

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://www.vasp.at/wiki/restbase/vasp.at/v1/":): {{\hat n}}_{{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{2}}}=\langle \Psi ^{{s_{2}}}\mid m_{2}\rangle \langle m_{1}\mid \Psi ^{{s_{1}}}\rangle

and the (unscreened) on-site electron-electron interaction

$U_{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{3}\gamma _{2}\gamma _{4}}=\langle m_{1}m_{3}\mid {\frac {1}{|\mathbf {r} -\mathbf {r} ^{\prime }|}}\mid m_{2}m_{4}\rangle \delta _{s_{1}s_{2}}\delta _{s_{3}s_{4}}$

where $|m\rangle$ are real spherical harmonics of angular momentum $\ell$=LDAUL.

The unscreened electron-electron interaction $U_{\gamma _{1}\gamma _{3}\gamma _{2}\gamma _{4}}$ can be written in terms of the Slater integrals $F^{0}$, $F^{2}$, $F^{4}$, and $F^{6}$ (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 $F^{0}$).

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, $U$ and $J$ (LDAUU and LDAUJ, respectively). $U$ and $J$ can also be extracted from constrained-DFT calculations.

These translate into values for the Slater integrals in the following way (as implemented in VASP at the moment):

$L\;$	$F^{0}\;$	$F^{2}\;$	$F^{4}\;$	$F^{6}\;$
$1\;$	$U\;$	$5J\;$	-	-
$2\;$	$U\;$	${\frac {14}{1+0.625}}J$	$0.625F^{2}\;$	-
$3\;$	$U\;$	${\frac {6435}{286+195\cdot 0.668+250\cdot 0.494}}J$	$0.668F^{2}\;$	$0.494F^{2}\;$

The essence of the DFT+U method consists of the assumption that one may now write the total energy as:

$E_{\mathrm {tot} }(n,{\hat {n}})=E_{\mathrm {DFT} }(n)+E_{\mathrm {HF} }({\hat {n}})-E_{\mathrm {dc} }({\hat {n}})$

where the Hartree-Fock like interaction replaces the semilocal on site due to the fact that one subtracts a double counting energy $E_{\mathrm {dc} }$, which supposedly equals the on-site semilocal contribution to the total energy,

$E_{\mathrm {dc} }({\hat {n}})={\frac {U}{2}}{\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }({\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }-1)-{\frac {J}{2}}\sum _{\sigma }{\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }^{\sigma }({\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }^{\sigma }-1).$

• LDAUTYPE=2: The simplified (rotationally invariant) approach to the DFT+U, introduced by Dudarev et al.

This flavour of DFT+U is of the following form:

$E_{\mathrm {DFT+U} }=E_{\mathrm {LSDA} }+{\frac {(U-J)}{2}}\sum _{\sigma }\left[\left(\sum _{m_{1}}n_{m_{1},m_{1}}^{\sigma }\right)-\left(\sum _{m_{1},m_{2}}{\hat {n}}_{m_{1},m_{2}}^{\sigma }{\hat {n}}_{m_{2},m_{1}}^{\sigma }\right)\right].$

This can be understood as adding a penalty functional to the semilocal total energy expression that forces the on-site occupancy matrix in the direction of idempotency,

${\hat {n}}^{\sigma }={\hat {n}}^{\sigma }{\hat {n}}^{\sigma }$.

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 $U$ and $J$ do not enter seperately, only the difference $U-J$ is meaningful.

• LDAUTYPE=4: same as LDAUTYPE=1, but without exchange splitting (i.e., LDA instead of LSDA)

In the LDA+U case the double counting energy is given by,

$E_{\mathrm {dc} }({\hat {n}})={\frac {U}{2}}{\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }({\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }-1)-{\frac {J}{2}}\sum _{\sigma }{\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }^{\sigma }({\hat {n}}_{\mathrm {tot} }^{\sigma }-1).$

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Warning: it is important to be aware of the fact that when using the DFT+U, in general the total energy will depend on the parameters $U$ and $J$ (LDAUU and LDAUJ, respectively). It is therefore not meaningful to compare the total energies resulting from calculations with different $U$ and/or $J$, or $U-J$ 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 $\ell$=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 DFT+U calculations. For the calculation of band structures within the DFT+U approach, it is hence strictly required to increase LMAXMIX to 4 ($d$ elements) and 6 (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://www.vasp.at/wiki/restbase/vasp.at/v1/":): f elements).

Related Tags and Sections

LDAU, LDAUL, LDAUU, LDAUJ, LDAUPRINT, LMAXMIX

Examples that use this tag

References

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