Phonon computations

This is a quick sketch how to run a simple phonon calculation using DFTK.

Preliminary implementation

Practical phonon computations have only seen rudimentary testing as of now. As of now we do not yet recommend relying on this feature for production calculations. Some of the limitations are:

  • symmetries must be disabled (pass symmetries=false to the model)
  • only LDA functionals are supported
  • non-linear core corrections from the pseudopotentials are not supported
  • MPI parallelization over k-points is not supported (due to $k$ and $k+q$ interactions)

We appreciate any issues, bug reports or PRs.

First we run an SCF calculation.

using AtomsBuilder
using DFTK
using Printf
using PseudoPotentialData

pseudopotentials = PseudoFamily("cp2k.nc.sr.lda.v0_1.semicore.gth")
# Make sure to disable symmetries:
model  = model_DFT(bulk(:Si); pseudopotentials, functionals=LDA(), symmetries=false)
basis  = PlaneWaveBasis(model; Ecut=10, kgrid=[4, 4, 4])
scfres = self_consistent_field(basis, tol=1e-8);
nothing  # hide
n     Energy            log10(ΔE)   log10(Δρ)   Diag   Δtime 
---   ---------------   ---------   ---------   ----   ------
  1   -7.916328344253                   -0.69    4.1    618ms
  2   -7.921169486857       -2.32       -1.52    1.0    320ms
  3   -7.921407284446       -3.62       -2.48    1.5    328ms
  4   -7.921440912757       -4.47       -2.84    2.3    444ms
  5   -7.921441781346       -6.06       -3.18    1.0    285ms
  6   -7.921442007212       -6.65       -4.37    1.0    284ms
  7   -7.921442022033       -7.83       -5.08    2.3    455ms
  8   -7.921442022137       -9.98       -5.38    2.1    397ms
  9   -7.921442022143      -11.22       -6.08    1.0    296ms
 10   -7.921442022144      -12.14       -6.14    1.8    368ms
 11   -7.921442022144      -12.71       -6.90    1.0    294ms
 12   -7.921442022144      -13.82       -7.70    2.0    385ms
 13   -7.921442022144   +    -Inf       -8.25    2.0    427ms

Next we compute the phonon modes at the q-point [1/4, 1/4, 1/4].

phret_q0 = @time DFTK.phonon_modes(scfres; q=[0.25, 0.25, 0.25]);
nothing  # hide
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.97s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   13.0s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.28s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   2.05s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.15s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.03s  
   6        0       6       -2.43      9.9   906ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   848ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   781ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   679ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   502ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.2   399ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   315ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   1.88s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   415ms  
  15        1       3       -8.69      2.1   360ms  
                                      19.2   2.15s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.46s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.36s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.25s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.23s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.19s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.07s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   934ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   858ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   785ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   677ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   495ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   400ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   320ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.8   1.70s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   404ms  
  15        1       3       -8.67      2.0   349ms  
                                      19.2   1.57s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.45s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   2.21s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.19s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.16s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.17s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.05s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   921ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   848ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   781ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   672ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   502ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   397ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   315ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.9   1.71s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   398ms  
  15        1       3       -8.65      2.1   347ms  
                                      19.2   1.57s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.44s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.35s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.24s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.21s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.20s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.08s  
   6        0       6       -2.43      9.9   925ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.8   858ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   786ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   679ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   504ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.2   400ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   315ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   1.71s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   400ms  
  15        1       3       -8.69      2.1   351ms  
                                      19.2   1.57s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   2.28s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.30s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.21s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.19s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.19s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.06s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   934ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   854ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   780ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   677ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   501ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   398ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   314ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.8   1.70s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   402ms  
  15        1       3       -8.68      2.0   348ms  
                                      19.2   1.57s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.44s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.36s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.23s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.22s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.20s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.07s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   934ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   853ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   784ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   675ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   501ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   399ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   316ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.9   1.70s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   398ms  
  15        1       3       -8.64      2.1   346ms  
                                      19.2   2.41s  Final orbitals
139.581159 seconds (102.18 M allocations: 30.812 GiB, 4.21% gc time, 25.34% compilation time)

These are the final phonon frequencies:

for (i, ω) in enumerate(phret_q0.frequencies)
    @printf("Mode %2d: %8.3f cm-1\n", i, ω .* DFTK.hartree_to_cm⁻¹)
end
Mode  1:   93.616 cm-1
Mode  2:   93.616 cm-1
Mode  3:  223.147 cm-1
Mode  4:  478.527 cm-1
Mode  5:  484.617 cm-1
Mode  6:  484.617 cm-1