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 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   -7.916325425776                   -0.69    4.2    1.43s
  2   -7.921168245196       -2.31       -1.52    1.0    318ms
  3   -7.921407971753       -3.62       -2.48    1.4    369ms
  4   -7.921440958220       -4.48       -2.85    2.3    451ms
  5   -7.921441782057       -6.08       -3.18    1.0    328ms
  6   -7.921442006838       -6.65       -4.37    1.0    354ms
  7   -7.921442022027       -7.82       -5.04    2.4    499ms
  8   -7.921442022135       -9.96       -5.31    2.0    402ms
  9   -7.921442022143      -11.10       -6.09    1.1    329ms
 10   -7.921442022144      -12.10       -6.08    1.9    425ms
 11   -7.921442022144      -12.62       -6.89    1.0    323ms
 12   -7.921442022144      -13.77       -7.58    2.0    421ms
 13   -7.921442022144      -14.75       -8.20    1.8    431ms

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   2.02s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   12.7s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.38s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.32s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.29s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.88s  
   6        0       6       -2.43      9.9   968ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   865ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   829ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   731ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   526ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.2   423ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   337ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   2.00s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   449ms  
  15        1       3       -8.68      2.1   388ms  
                                      19.2   2.27s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.58s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.47s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.34s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.31s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.31s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.16s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   1.02s  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   916ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   859ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   733ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   541ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   434ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   344ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   1.85s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   439ms  
  15        1       3       -8.66      2.0   377ms  
                                      19.2   1.73s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.57s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   2.21s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.27s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.31s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.27s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.15s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   1.01s  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   922ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   839ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   734ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   537ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   442ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   340ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.9   1.83s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.87      3.1   438ms  
  15        1       3       -8.65      2.1   378ms  
                                      19.2   1.70s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.57s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.46s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.34s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.32s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.30s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.15s  
   6        0       6       -2.43      9.9   1.00s  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   925ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   856ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   731ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   540ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.2   433ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   343ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   1.92s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.87      3.1   1.11s  
  15        1       3       -8.69      2.1   356ms  
                                      19.2   1.60s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.49s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.45s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.33s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.32s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.30s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.16s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   1.01s  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   927ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   849ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   741ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   538ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   437ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   342ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.8   1.85s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   442ms  
  15        1       3       -8.68      2.1   378ms  
                                      19.2   1.71s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.56s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.49s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.5   1.36s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.32s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.8   1.30s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.17s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   1.02s  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   924ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   860ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   810ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   1.21s  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   400ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   304ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.9   1.72s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   413ms  
  15        1       3       -8.66      2.1   352ms  
                                      19.2   1.68s  Final orbitals
146.512622 seconds (144.22 M allocations: 31.693 GiB, 3.72% gc time, 22.88% compilation time)

These are the final phonon frequencies:

phret_q0.frequencies
6-element Vector{Float64}:
 0.00042654657743381515
 0.00042654659336022855
 0.0010167311140500527
 0.002180329334734365
 0.0022080776996891574
 0.0022080777018975376