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Third tutorial

Crystalline silicon.

This tutorial aims at showing you how to get the following physical properties, for an insulator:

  • the total energy
  • the lattice parameter
  • the band structure (actually, the Kohn-Sham band structure)

You will learn about the use of k-points, as well as the smearing of the plane-wave kinetic energy cut-off.

Important

All the necessary input files to run the examples can be found in the ~abinit/tests/ directory where ~abinit is the absolute path of the abinit top-level directory.

To execute the tutorials, you are supposed to create a working directory (Work*) and copy there the input files and the files file of the lesson.

The files file ending with _x (e.g. tbase1_x.files) must be edited every time you start to use a new input file. You will discover more about the files file in section 1.1 of the help file.

To make things easier, we suggest to define some handy environment variables by executing the following lines in the terminal:

export ABI_HOME=Replace_with_the_absolute_path_to_the_abinit_top_level_dir

export ABI_TESTS=$ABI_HOME/tests/

export ABI_TUTORIAL=$ABI_TESTS/tutorial/           # Files for base1-2-3-4, GW ...
export ABI_TUTORESPFN=$ABI_TESTS/tutorespfn/       # Files specific to DFPT tutorials.
export ABI_TUTOPARAL=$ABI_TESTS/tutoparal/         # Tutorials about parallel version
export ABI_TUTOPLUGS=$ABI_TESTS/tutoplugs/         # Examples using external libraries.
export ABI_PSPDIR=$ABI_TESTS/Psps_for_tests/       # Pseudos used in examples.

export PATH=$ABI_HOME/src/98_main/:$PATH

The examples in this tutorial will use these shell variables so that one can easily copy and paste the code snippets into the terminal (remember to set ABI_HOME first!)

The last line adds the directory containing the executables to your PATH so that one can invoke the code by simply typing abinit in the terminal instead of providing the absolute path.

Finally, to run the examples in parallel with e.g. 2 MPI processes, use mpirun (mpiexec) and the syntax:

mpirun -n 2 abinit < files_file > log 2> err

The standard output of the application is redirected to log while err collects the standard error (runtime error messages, if any, are written here).

This tutorial should take about 1 hour.

Visualisation tools are NOT covered in this tutorial. Powerful visualisation procedures have been developed in the Abipy context, relying on matplotlib. See the README of Abipy and the Abipy tutorials.

Computing the total energy of silicon at a fixed number of k-points

Before beginning, you might consider working in a different subdirectory, as for tutorial 1 or 2. Why not Work3?

The file tbase3_x.files lists the file names and root names. You can copy it in the Work3 directory and change it as you did in the first and second tutorials. You can also copy the file tbase3_1.in inside the Work3 directory with:

cd $ABI_TUTORIAL/Input
mkdir Work3
cd Work3
cp ../tbase3_x.files .   # You will need to edit this file.
cp ../tbase3_1.in .

This is your input file:

You should edit it, read it carefully, have a look at the following new input variables and their explanation:

Note also the following: you will work at fixed ecut (8Ha). It is implicit that in real life, you should do a convergence test with respect to ecut. Here, a suitable ecut is given to you. It will result in a lattice parameter that is 0.2% off of the experimental value.

When you have read the input file, you can run the code, as usual:

abinit < tbase3_x.files > log 2> err &

Then, read the output file, and note the total energy:

etotal   -8.8662238960E+00

Starting the convergence study with respect to k-points

There is, of course, a convergence study associated with the sampling of the Brillouin zone. You should examine different grids, of increasing resolution. You might try the following series of grids:

ngkpt1  2 2 2
ngkpt2  4 4 4
ngkpt3  6 6 6
ngkpt4  8 8 8

However, the associated number of k-points in the irreducible Brillouin zone grows very fast. It is

nkpt1  2
nkpt2 10
nkpt3 28
nkpt4 60

Abinit computes automatically this number of k-points, from the definition of the grid and the symmetries. You might nevertheless define an input nkpt value in the input file, in which case the code will compare its computed value (from the grid) with this input value.

We take this opportunity to examine the behaviour of abinit when a problem is detected. Let us suppose that with ngkpt1 4 4 4, one mentions nkpt1 2. The input file tbase3_2.in is an example:

Do not forget to change tbase3_x.files, if you are using that file name. The message that you get a few dozen of lines before the end of the log file is:

--- !BUG
message: |
    The argument nkpt=     2, does not match
      the number of k-points generated by kptopt, kptrlatt, shiftk,
      and the eventual symmetries, that is, nkpt=    10.
      However, note that it might be due to the user,
      if nkpt is explicitely defined in the input file.
      In this case, please check your input file.
src_file: getkgrid.F90
src_line: 415
...

Action : contact ABINIT group.

This is a typical abinit error message. It states what is the problem that causes the stop of the code, then suggests that it might be due to an error in the input file, namely, an erroneous value of nkpt. The expected value, nkpt 10 is mentioned before the notice that the input file might be erroneous. Then, the file at which the problem occurred is mentioned, as well as the number of the line in that file.

As the computation of nkpt for specific grids of k-points is not an easy task, while the even more important selection of specific economical grids (the best ratio between the accuracy of the integration in the Brillouin zone and the number of k-points) is more difficult, some help to the user is provided by ABINIT.

The code is able to examine automatically different k-point grids, and to propose the best grids for integration. This is described in the abinit help file, see the input variable prtkpt, and the associated characterisation of the integral accuracy, described in kptrlen.

Tip

The generation of lists of k-point sets is done in different test cases, in $ABI_TESTS/v2. You can directly have a look at the output files in $ABI_TESTS/v2/Refs, the output files for the tests 61 to 73.

When one begins the study of a new material, it is strongly advised to examine first the list of k-points grids, and select (at least) three efficient ones, for the k-point convergence study.

Do not forget that the CPU time will be linearly proportional to the number of k-points to be treated: using 10 k-points will take five more times than using 2 k-points. Even for a similar accuracy of the Brillouin zone integration (about the same value of kptrlen), it might be easy to generate a grid that will fold to 10 k-points in the irreducible Brillouin zone, as well as one that will fold to 2 k-points in the irreducible Brillouin zone. The latter is clearly to be preferred!

Convergence study with respect to k-points

In order to understand k-point grids, you should read [Monkhorst1976]. Well, maybe not immediately. In the meantime, you can try the above-mentioned convergence study.

The input file tbase3_3.in is an example, while $ABI_TUTORIAL/Refs/tbase3_3.out is a reference output file.

cd $ABI_TUTORIAL/Work3
cp ../tbase3_3.in .

In this output file, you should have a look at the echo of input variables. As you know, these are preprocessed, and, in particular, ngkpt and shiftk are used to generate the list of k-points (kpt) and their weights (wtk). You should read the information about kpt and wtk.

From the output file, here is the evolution of total energy per unit cell:

etotal1  -8.8662238960E+00
etotal2  -8.8724909739E+00
etotal3  -8.8726017432E+00
etotal4  -8.8726056405E+00

The difference between dataset 3 and dataset 4 is rather small. Even the dataset 2 gives an accuracy of about 0.0001 Ha. So, our converged value for the total energy, at fixed acell, fixed ecut, is -8.8726 Ha.

Determination of the lattice parameters

The input variable optcell governs the automatic optimisation of cell shape and volume. For the automatic optimisation of cell volume, use:

optcell 1
ionmov 2
ntime 10
dilatmx 1.05
ecutsm 0.5

You should read the indications about dilatmx and ecutsm. Do not test all the k-point grids, only those with nkpt 2 and 10.

The input file $ABI_TUTORIAL/Input/tbase3_4.in is an example,

while $ABI_TUTORIAL/Refs/tbase3_4.out is a reference output file.

You should obtain the following evolution of the lattice parameters:

acell1   1.0233363682E+01  1.0233363682E+01  1.0233363682E+01 Bohr
acell2   1.0216447241E+01  1.0216447241E+01  1.0216447241E+01 Bohr

with the following very small residual stresses:

strten1   1.8591719160E-07  1.8591719160E-07  1.8591719160E-07
          0.0000000000E+00  0.0000000000E+00  0.0000000000E+00
strten2  -2.8279720007E-08 -2.8279720007E-08 -2.8279720007E-08
          0.0000000000E+00  0.0000000000E+00  0.0000000000E+00

The stress tensor is given in Hartree/Bohr3, and the order of the components is:

                        11  22  33
                        23  13  12

There is only a 0.13% relative difference between acell1 and acell2. So, our converged LDA value for Silicon, with the 14si.pspnc pseudopotential (see the tbase3_x.files file) is 10.216 Bohr (actually 10.21644), that is 5.406 Angstrom. The experimental value is 5.431 Angstrom at 25 degree Celsius, see R.W.G. Wyckoff, Crystal structures Ed. Wiley and sons, New-York (1963) or the NIST database.

Computing the band structure

We fix the parameters acell to the theoretical value of 3 * 10.216, and we fix also the grid of k-points (the 4x4x4 FCC grid, equivalent to a 8x8x8 Monkhorst-pack grid). We will ask for 8 bands (4 valence and 4 conduction).

A band structure can be computed by solving the Kohn-Sham equation for many different k-points, along different lines of the Brillouin zone. The potential that enters the Kohn-Sham must be derived from a previous self-consistent calculation, and will not vary during the scan of different k-point lines.

Suppose that you want to make a L-Gamma-X-(U-)Gamma circuit, with 10, 12 and 17 divisions for each line (each segment has a different length in reciprocal space, and these divisions give approximately the same distance between points along a line). The circuit will be obtained easily by the following choice of segment end points:

L     (1/2 0 0)
Gamma (0 0 0)
X     (0 1/2 1/2)
Gamma (1 1 1)

Note:

  1. the last Gamma point is in another cell of the reciprocal space than the first one, this choice allows to construct the X-U-Gamma line easily;

  2. the k-points are specified using reduced coordinates - in agreement with the input setting of the primitive 2-atom unit cell - in standard textbooks, you will often find the L, Gamma or X point given in coordinates of the conventional 8-atom cell: the above-mentioned circuit is then (½ ½ ½)-(0 0 0)-(1 0 0)-(1 1 1), but such (conventional) coordinates cannot be used with the 2-atom (non-conventional) cell.

So, you should set up in your input file, for the first dataset, a usual SCF calculation in which you output the density (prtden 1), and, for the second dataset:

  • fix iscf to -2, to make a non-self-consistent calculation;
  • define getden -1, to take the output density of dataset 1;
  • set nband to 8;
  • set kptopt to -3, to define three segments in the brillouin Zone;
  • set ndivk to 10 12 17 (this means a circuit defined by 4 points, with 10 divisions of the first segment, 12 divisions of the second, 17 divisions of the third)
  • set kptbounds to

    0.5  0.0  0.0 # L point
    0.0  0.0  0.0 # Gamma point
    0.0  0.5  0.5 # X point
    1.0  1.0  1.0 # Gamma point in another cell.
    
  • set enunit to 1, in order to have eigenenergies in eV

  • the only tolerance criterion admitted for non-self-consistent calculations is tolwfr. You should set it to 1.0d-10 (or so), and suppress toldfe.

The input file $ABI_TUTORIAL/Input/tbase3_5.in is an example,

while $ABI_TUTORIAL/Refs/tbase3_5.out is a reference output file.

You should find the band structure starting at (second dataset):

 Eigenvalues (   eV  ) for nkpt=  40  k points:
 kpt#   1, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.5000  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -3.78815  -1.15872   4.69668   4.69668   7.38795   9.23867   9.23867  13.45707
 kpt#   2, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.4500  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -3.92759  -0.95774   4.71292   4.71292   7.40692   9.25561   9.25561  13.48927
 kpt#   3, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.4000  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -4.25432  -0.44393   4.76726   4.76726   7.46846   9.31193   9.31193  13.57737
 kpt#   4, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.3500  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -4.64019   0.24941   4.85732   4.85732   7.56855   9.38323   9.38323  13.64601
 ....

One needs a graphical tool to represent all these data. In a separate file (_EIG), you will find the list of k-points and the eigenenergies (the input variable prteig is set by default to 1).

Even without a graphical tool we will have a quick look at the values at L, \Gamma, X and \Gamma again:

 kpt#   1, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.5000  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -3.78815  -1.15872   4.69668   4.69668   7.38795   9.23867   9.23867  13.45707

 kpt#  11, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.0000  0.0000  0.0000 (reduced coord)
  -6.17005   5.91814   5.91814   5.91814   8.44836   8.44836   8.44836   9.17755

 kpt#  23, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  0.0000  0.5000  0.5000 (reduced coord)
  -1.96393  -1.96393   3.00569   3.00569   6.51173   6.51173  15.95524  15.95524

 kpt#  40, nband=  8, wtk=  1.00000, kpt=  1.0000  1.0000  1.0000 (reduced coord)
  -6.17005   5.91814   5.91814   5.91814   8.44836   8.44836   8.44836   9.17755

The last \Gamma is exactly equivalent to the first \Gamma. It can be checked that the top of the valence band is obtained at \Gamma (=5.91814 eV). The width of the valence band is 12.09 eV, the lowest unoccupied state at X is 0.594 eV higher than the top of the valence band, at \Gamma.

The Si is described as an indirect band gap material (this is correct), with a band-gap of about 0.594 eV (this is quantitatively quite wrong: the experimental value 1.17 eV is at 25 degree Celsius). The minimum of the conduction band is even slightly displaced with respect to X, see kpt # 21. This underestimation of the band gap is well-known (the famous DFT band-gap problem). In order to obtain correct band gaps, you need to go beyond the Kohn-Sham Density Functional Theory: use the GW approximation. This is described in the first tutorial on GW.

For experimental data and band structure representation, see the book by M.L. Cohen and J.R. Chelikowski [Cohen1988].

Important

There is a subtlety that is worth to comment about. In non-self-consistent calculations, like those performed in the present band structure calculation, with iscf = -2, not all bands are converged within the tolerance tolwfr. Indeed, the two upper bands (by default) have not been taken into account to apply this convergence criterion: they constitute a buffer. The number of such buffer bands is governed by the input variable nbdbuf.

It can happen that the highest (or two highest) band(s), if not separated by a gap from non-treated bands, can exhibit a very slow convergence rate. This buffer allows achieving convergence of important, non-buffer bands. In the present case, 6 bands have been converged with a residual better than tolwfr, while the two upper bands are less converged (still sufficiently for graphical representation of the band structure). In order to achieve the same convergence for all 8 bands, it is advised to use nband=10 (that is, 8 + 2).

Using AbiPy to automate the most boring steps

The AbiPy package provides several tools to facilitate the preparation of band structure calculations and the analysis of the output results. First of all, one can use the abistruct script with the kpath command to determine a high-symmetry k-path from any file containing structural information (abinit input file, netcdf output files etc.). The high-symmetry k-path follows the conventions described in [Setyawan2010]. Let’s try with:

abistruct.py kpath tbase3_5.in

# Abinit Structure
 natom 2
 ntypat 1
 typat 1 1
 znucl 14
 xred
    0.0000000000    0.0000000000    0.0000000000
    0.2500000000    0.2500000000    0.2500000000
 acell    1.0    1.0    1.0
 rprim
    0.0000000000    5.1080000000    5.1080000000
    5.1080000000    0.0000000000    5.1080000000
    5.1080000000    5.1080000000    0.0000000000

# K-path in reduced coordinates:
# tolwfr 1e-20 iscf -2 getden ??
 ndivsm 10
 kptopt -11
 kptbounds
    +0.00000  +0.00000  +0.00000 # $\Gamma$
    +0.50000  +0.00000  +0.50000 # X
    +0.50000  +0.25000  +0.75000 # W
    +0.37500  +0.37500  +0.75000 # K
    +0.00000  +0.00000  +0.00000 # $\Gamma$
    +0.50000  +0.50000  +0.50000 # L
    +0.62500  +0.25000  +0.62500 # U
    +0.50000  +0.25000  +0.75000 # W
    +0.50000  +0.50000  +0.50000 # L
    +0.37500  +0.37500  +0.75000 # K
    +0.62500  +0.25000  +0.62500 # U
    +0.50000  +0.00000  +0.50000 # X

To visualize the band structure stored in the GSR.nc file, use the abiopen script and the command line:

abiopen.py tbase3_5o_DS2_GSR.nc --expose -sns=talk

It is also possible to compare multiple GSR files with the abicomp script and the syntax

abicomp.py gsr tbase3_5o_DS1_GSR.nc tbase3_5o_DS2_GSR.nc -e -sns=talk

to produce the following figures:

For further details about the AbiPy API and the GSR file, please consult the GsrFile notebook .