C60 Molecule

This example demonstrates a number of Qbox features in calculations of the electronic structure of a C60 molecule

The example includes:

  • Calculation of the ground state energy

  • Calculation of Kohn-Sham eigenvalues and energy gap

  • Maximally Localized Wannier Functions

Ground state energy calculation

The Kohn-Sham energy of the C60 molecule is computed using the Local Density Approximation (LDA).

Pseudopotential

The pseudopotential used for this example is defined in the file C_HSCV_LDA-1.0.xml . This file must be present in the current directory when running the first electronic structure calculation of the C60 molecule.

Sample definition file

The sample is defined in the file c60.i where the unit cell is first defined using the set command and the cell variable, the species ‘carbon’ is defined using the species command, and each atom is defined using the atom Qbox command.

Listing 8 c60.i
set cell 20 0 0  0 20 0  0 0 20
species carbon C_HSCV_LDA-1.0.xml
atom C1 carbon 0.0000 1.3127 6.5487
atom C2 carbon 2.2125 2.6800 5.7037
atom C3 carbon 1.3674 4.8925 4.3362
atom C4 carbon -1.3674 4.8925 4.3362
atom C5 carbon -2.2125 2.6801 5.7036
atom C6 carbon 0.0000 -1.3124 6.5488
atom C7 carbon -2.2125 -2.6798 5.7037
atom C8 carbon 2.2125 -2.6798 5.7037
atom C9 carbon -1.3674 -4.8925 4.3364
atom C10 carbon 1.3674 -4.8925 4.3364
atom C11 carbon 4.3363 1.3674 4.8925
atom C12 carbon 4.3363 -1.3674 4.8925
atom C13 carbon 5.7037 2.2126 2.6800
atom C14 carbon 5.7037 -2.2124 2.6800
atom C15 carbon 6.5488 0.0000 1.3126
atom C16 carbon 2.6800 5.7037 2.2125
atom C17 carbon 4.8925 4.3363 1.3674
atom C18 carbon 1.3126 6.5488 -0.0000
atom C19 carbon 4.8925 4.3362 -1.3674
atom C20 carbon 2.6800 5.7037 -2.2125
atom C21 carbon -2.6800 5.7037 2.2125
atom C22 carbon -1.3126 6.5488 -0.0000
atom C23 carbon -4.8925 4.3363 1.3673
atom C24 carbon -2.6800 5.7036 -2.2125
atom C25 carbon -4.8925 4.3362 -1.3675
atom C26 carbon -4.3363 1.3675 4.8924
atom C27 carbon -5.7037 2.2125 2.6799
atom C28 carbon -4.3363 -1.3673 4.8925
atom C29 carbon -6.5488 0.0000 1.3126
atom C30 carbon -5.7037 -2.2125 2.6800
atom C31 carbon 1.3674 -4.8926 -4.3362
atom C32 carbon 2.2125 -2.6801 -5.7036
atom C33 carbon 0.0000 -1.3127 -6.5487
atom C34 carbon -2.2125 -2.6801 -5.7036
atom C35 carbon -1.3674 -4.8926 -4.3362
atom C36 carbon 2.6800 -5.7037 -2.2125
atom C37 carbon 1.3126 -6.5488 0.0001
atom C38 carbon 4.8925 -4.3363 -1.3674
atom C39 carbon 2.6800 -5.7036 2.2126
atom C40 carbon 4.8925 -4.3362 1.3674
atom C41 carbon 4.3363 -1.3675 -4.8924
atom C42 carbon 5.7037 -2.2125 -2.6800
atom C43 carbon 4.3363 1.3673 -4.8925
atom C44 carbon 6.5488 0.0000 -1.3126
atom C45 carbon 5.7037 2.2125 -2.6800
atom C46 carbon 0.0000 1.3124 -6.5488
atom C47 carbon 2.2125 2.6798 -5.7037
atom C48 carbon -2.2125 2.6798 -5.7037
atom C49 carbon 1.3674 4.8923 -4.3364
atom C50 carbon -1.3674 4.8923 -4.3364
atom C51 carbon -4.3363 -1.3674 -4.8925
atom C52 carbon -4.3363 1.3674 -4.8925
atom C53 carbon -5.7037 -2.2125 -2.6800
atom C54 carbon -5.7037 2.2125 -2.6800
atom C55 carbon -6.5488 0.0000 -1.3126
atom C56 carbon -2.6800 -5.7037 -2.2125
atom C57 carbon -4.8925 -4.3363 -1.3674
atom C58 carbon -1.3126 -6.5488 0.0000
atom C59 carbon -4.8925 -4.3362 1.3674
atom C60 carbon -2.6800 -5.7036 2.2125

The calculation of the electronic ground state is done using the Qbox script c60gs.i

Listing 9 c60gs.i
1c60.i
2set ecut 35
3set wf_dyn PSDA
4set scf_tol 1.e-8
5randomize_wf 0.01
6run -atomic_density 0 40 10
7set wf_diag T
8run 0
9save c60gs.xml

  • In line 1, the script c60.i is invoked and the contents of the script are executed, defining the unit cell, the species carbon and the position of all atoms.

  • Line 2 defines the plane wave energy cutoff ecut to be 35 Ry. This resizes the plane wave basis set accordingly. Note that the unit used for the plane wave energy cutoff (Rydberg) is an exception to the convention used otherwise in Qbox to use atomic units (Hartree and bohr).

  • Line 3 defines the algorithm used to update wave functions by setting the variable wf_dyn to PSDA (Preconditioned Steepest Descent with Anderson acceleration).

  • Line 4 defines the tolerance used to determine convergence in self-consistent iterations (variable scf_tol). Iterations are considered converged when the energy changes by less than 10-8 (hartree).

  • Line 5 uses the randomize_wf command to add random numbers to the electronic wave function coefficients before starting the calculation. This is necessary to avoid spurious stationary points in the optimization for systems of high symmetry (such as C60). The argument is the amplitude of the random perturbation used.

  • Line 6 invokes the run command to perform the calculation. The option -atomic_density specifies that the initial charge density should be approximated by a sum of atomic charge densities. This is recommended in calculations of the electronic structure of molecules placed in large, empty unit cells. The first argument (0) refers to the number of ionic steps (during which the atoms are moved). This is zero for the present calculation since we are only optimizing the electronic wave functions with fixed atoms. The second argument (40) is the maximum number of self-consistent iterations performed. The actual number of iterations may be smaller if the convergence criterion scf_tol is reached before 40 iterations. The third argument (10) is the number of iterations used to update wave functions between updates of the charge density.

  • Line 7 sets the wf_diag variable to T (True) to request the calculation of the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues and eigenvectors in the next command.

  • Line 8 invokes the run with a single parameter of 0. This computes the energy (and in this case, Kohn-Sham eigenvalues and eigenvectors) but does not update the electronic wave functions.

  • Line 9 uses the save command to save a full description of the system (atomic species, atomic positions and wave functions) on file c60gs.xml for later use in other calculations.

The calculation can be run by invoking Qbox as:

$ mpirun -np 2 qb c60gs.i > c60gs.r

The Kohn-Sham eigenvalues can be extracted from the output file using the following xml_grep command:

$ xml_grep eigenset c60gs.r

This produces the following output

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xml_grep version="0.9" date="Wed Sep 19 14:50:27 2018">
<file filename="c60gs.r">
<eigenset>
<eigenvalues kpoint="0.00000000 0.00000000 0.00000000" n="120" spin="0" weight="1.00000000">
-25.40100   -24.88202   -24.88199   -24.88182   -23.89485
-23.89475   -23.89231   -23.89221   -23.89211   -22.85343
-22.85333   -22.85327   -22.00744   -22.00434   -22.00424
-22.00412   -20.70444   -20.70438   -20.69686   -20.69681
-20.69677   -20.23972   -20.22780   -20.22758   -20.22739
-18.70004   -18.69993   -18.69752   -18.69739   -18.69726
-18.49738   -18.49730   -18.49725   -17.44521   -17.44517
-17.44512   -16.39258   -16.39250   -16.38423   -16.38405
-16.38380   -16.22562   -16.22550   -16.22547   -15.86992
-14.67072   -14.66484   -14.66479   -14.66466   -13.90474
-13.90467   -13.90461   -13.89639   -13.89635   -13.60521
-13.60518   -13.60505   -13.06592   -12.98945   -12.98941
-12.98936   -12.38356   -12.38353   -12.38341   -12.28592
-12.28587   -12.28570   -12.27684   -11.73226   -11.73223
-11.72320   -11.72310   -11.72300   -11.37361   -11.37354
-11.36955   -11.35558   -11.35541   -11.35520   -11.26133
-11.26126   -11.26116   -11.08084   -11.08072   -11.08067
-10.52467   -10.52403   -10.52394   -10.52382    -9.95413
 -9.95405    -9.95401    -9.52843    -9.52834    -9.52233
 -9.52224    -9.52218    -9.39338    -9.36151    -9.36141
 -9.36134    -9.19187    -9.19175    -9.19172    -9.18587
 -9.18577    -7.88591    -7.88583    -7.86100    -7.77139
 -7.77133    -7.77128    -7.65305    -7.65290    -7.65281
 -6.44126    -6.44120    -6.43436    -6.43429    -6.43423
</eigenvalues>
</eigenset>
</file>
</xml_grep>

Kohn-Sham eigenvalues are printed in units of electron-volt (eV). The results show that the five topmost eigenvalues belonging to the \(H_g\) irreducible representation of the \(I_h\) group are close to the value 6.44 eV. A slight symmetry breaking due to the lower (cubic) symmetry of the unit cell separates the five eigenvalues into two groups, centered at approximately 6.441 and 6.434 eV.

Structure optimization

The initial positions used in the file c60.i are close but not exactly equal to the equilibrium positions. A small residual force on all atoms can be seen in the output of the ground state calculation. This can be shown using e.g. the command:

$ xml_grep atom/force c60gs.r

If we are only interested in knowing the largest force acting on any atom, we can use the qbox_maxforce.py python script (in the util directory) as follows:

$ qbox_maxforce.py c60gs.r

which produces the following output:

 3.628e-03 C38       3.649e-03 C50      -3.632e-03 C41
-3.621e-03 C57       3.648e-03 C49      -3.636e-03 C41

This indicates that the largest force in the x direction is acting on atom C57, while the largest forces in the y and z directions are acting on atoms C49 and C41 respectively. The residual force is small (of the order of 3.0e-3 (hartree/bohr), but it can be further reduced by running a structure optmization.

The structure optimization starts from the previously saved file c60gs.xml that contains the results from the above electronic ground state calculation.

The optimization is described in the Qbox script c60cg.i.

Listing 10 c60cg.i
1load c60gs.xml
2set wf_dyn PSDA
3set scf_tol 1.e-8
4set atoms_dyn CG
5run 20 20

Note that the tolerance scf_tol has been reduced to \(10^{-8}\) to get more accuracy in the calculations of forces.

The structure optimization can be run using e.g. the command:

$ mpirun -np 2 qb c60cg.i > c60cg.r

At the end of the optimization, the residual forces are reduced:

$ qbox_maxforce.py c60cg.r

-3.621e-03 C57       3.648e-03 C49      -3.636e-03 C41
 3.011e-03 C44       3.005e-03 C18       3.019e-03 C1
 3.070e-03 C41       3.076e-03 C23      -3.087e-03 C50
-1.877e-03 C55      -1.877e-03 C37      -1.881e-03 C33
 1.390e-03 C44       1.392e-03 C22       1.393e-03 C6
 2.097e-03 C11      -2.118e-03 C40      -2.111e-03 C50
-2.670e-03 C41       2.684e-03 C40       2.708e-03 C50
-4.443e-04 C57       4.544e-04 C50      -4.475e-04 C41
 1.939e-04 C44       1.946e-04 C22      -1.959e-04 C33
-2.542e-04 C22      -2.494e-04 C33      -2.366e-04 C44
-9.379e-05 C54      -9.332e-05 C36      -9.183e-05 C47
 9.303e-05 C44      -9.345e-05 C58      -9.396e-05 C33
 6.163e-05 C44      -6.229e-05 C58      -6.284e-05 C33
-4.909e-05 C57       5.004e-05 C49       4.981e-05 C12
 2.976e-05 C44       3.006e-05 C18      -3.039e-05 C46
 2.287e-05 C37       2.348e-05 C46       2.298e-05 C15
 1.143e-05 C22       1.173e-05 C33      -1.151e-05 C15
 8.290e-06 C18      -8.480e-06 C33      -8.220e-06 C44
 2.831e-05 C44      -2.895e-05 C58      -2.912e-05 C46
 1.131e-05 C18      -1.148e-05 C33      -1.122e-05 C44

The residual forces are now of the order of \(10^{-5}\) (hartree/bohr).

Maximally Localized Wannier Functions (MLWF)

Maximally Localized Wannier Functions (MLWF) can me computed using the c60mlwf.i script

Listing 11 c60mlwf.i
1load c60gs.xml
2compute_mlwf

The position of each MLWF center and its spread is printed, together with the total dipole moment. The total dipole moment is the sum of the ionic dipole moment (defined by the sum of valence charges located at the atomic positions) and the electronic dipole moment (approximated by point charges located at the MLWF centers). Dipole moments are printed in units of electron*bohr.

The total dipole moment is zero (to a good approximation), as expected for the C60 molecule:

<ionic_dipole> -0.000000 -0.001600 0.000000 </ionic_dipole>
<total_dipole> 0.000036 -0.000505 0.000155 </total_dipole>
<total_dipole_length> 0.000530 </total_dipole_length>