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EPM code

"The empirical pseudopotential method never lost a battle to experiment." -- Marvin L. Cohen, 2008

Overview

EPM stands for Empirical Pseudopotential Method. It is the plane-wave part of TBPW-1.1 modified to generate input files for BerkeleyGW. Numerous other corrections and improvements have also been made by Georgy Samsonidze and David Strubbe. TBPW-1.1 is available for download from http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/software/, and the full documentation at: http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/downloads/tbpwdoc1.1.pdf.

The input variables are described in epm.inp. Most variables are common to both epm.x and epm2bgw.x, but a few are just for one or the other.

The real wavefunctions for systems with inversion symmetry are obtained by applying the Gram-Schmidt process adapted from paratecSGL-1.1.3/src/para/gwreal.f90

To plot silicon band structure calculated with the EPM executable: 

epm.x < silicon-epm.in
gnuplot bands.plt
Uses variables NumberOfLines, NumberOfDivisions, KPointsAndLabels.

To use the explicit form factors and to compute the band gap and the effective masses (mass only correct for Si-like band structures): 

epm.x < silicon-epm-ff.in
Uses variables gap_flag, gap_file, mass_flag, mass_file.

To generate input files for BerkeleyGW executable, use epm2bgw.x. The scripts epm2bgw_cplx.sh and epm2bgw_cplx_spin.sh are just for use with the testsuite. They force complex, or complex and spin-polarized.

You can find the actual input files for GW/BSE calculations on top of EPM in directory examples/EPM, as well as testsuite directories Si-EPM, GaAs-EPM, and Si-Wire-EPM.

The k-points for the EPM input files can be generated using utility kgrid.

Virtual crystal approximation (VCA) is implemented within EPM in the form of two pre-processing scripts, ff2vq.py and vca.py.

ff2vq.py reads EPM form factors from file form_factors.dat, fits them to the chosen functional form of the V(q) potential, writes potential coefficients to file v_of_q.dat, and writes new form factors computed from V(q) to file vq2ff.dat. This procedure is described by equations (8) and (9) and the accompanying text in Phys. Rev. B 84, 195201 (2011).

vca.py reads V(q) potential coefficients from file v_of_q.dat, employs the virtual crystal approximation to compute hybrid form factors, and writes them to file vca_ff.dat. The potential mixing is controlled by identifiers host_material and doping_level hard coded below. This procedure is described by equations (10) -- (12) and the accompanying text in Phys. Rev. B 84, 195201 (2011).

The original form factors from file form_factors.dat or the hybrid ones from file vca_ff.dat can be fed to epm.x and epm2bgw.x using keywords LatticeConstant and FormFactors in the input file for epm.x or epm2bgw.x. See example of using these keywords in silicon-epm-ff.in in the Meanfield/EPM directory.

The original code that EPM was based on, TBPW-1.1, was written by:

  • Dyutiman Das, UIUC
  • William Mattson, UIUC
  • Nichols A. Romero, UIUC
  • Richard M. Martin, UIUC

Description of TBPW-1.1 Software

The full documentation of the TBPW code is available at http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/downloads/tbpwdoc1.1.pdf.

TBPW is an electronic structure code primarily intended for pedagogical purposes. It is written from the ground-up in a modular style using Fortran 90. This code is composed of two distinct parts: a tightbinding (TB) and plane wave (PW). Additionally, there is a plane wave density (PWD) code which outputs the electron density on a grid.

The main characteristics of these codes are:

  • Readily provides band structure plots
  • TB implemented using a rotation matrix formalism allows the use of orbitals with arbitrary angular momentum l
  • PW implemented using the option of diagonalisation via direct-inversion

Send email to tbpw-subscribe@mcc.uiuc.edu to subscribe to the mailing list, tbpw@mcc.uiuc.edu

This material is based upon work supported by the NSF under Award No. 99-76550 and the DOE under Award No. DEFG-96-ER45439.

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