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   -7.916351613577                   -0.69    4.3    724ms
  2   -7.921173837847       -2.32       -1.52    1.0    290ms
  3   -7.921408556160       -3.63       -2.48    1.5    331ms
  4   -7.921440962351       -4.49       -2.86    2.2    436ms
  5   -7.921441791534       -6.08       -3.19    1.0    291ms
  6   -7.921442008282       -6.66       -4.51    1.1    299ms
  7   -7.921442022070       -7.86       -5.09    2.6    488ms
  8   -7.921442022137      -10.17       -5.37    1.9    380ms
  9   -7.921442022143      -11.22       -6.09    1.0    298ms
 10   -7.921442022144      -12.20       -6.11    1.8    378ms
 11   -7.921442022144      -12.65       -7.10    1.0    298ms
 12   -7.921442022144      -13.80       -7.49    2.1    424ms
 13   -7.921442022144   +    -Inf       -8.31    1.0    386ms

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   1.85s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   14.0s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.29s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.20s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.20s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.07s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   928ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   845ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   789ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   671ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   499ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   396ms  
  12        0      12       -8.28      1.0   314ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.8   1.87s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   411ms  
  15        1       3       -8.69      2.1   357ms  
                                      19.2   2.18s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.46s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.35s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.23s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.22s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.19s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   2.14s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   904ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   822ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   767ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.5   682ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   481ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   397ms  
  12        0      12       -8.28      1.0   311ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.9   1.68s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   397ms  
  15        1       3       -8.70      2.1   357ms  
                                      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     14.6   1.24s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.20s  
   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   930ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   851ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   796ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   671ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   500ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   395ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   314ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.9   1.70s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   448ms  
  15        1       3       -8.66      2.1   353ms  
                                      19.2   1.57s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.43s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   2.38s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.21s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.21s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.18s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.05s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   922ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   840ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   787ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   674ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   502ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   396ms  
  12        0      12       -8.28      1.0   315ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.8   1.71s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   401ms  
  15        1       3       -8.68      2.1   348ms  
                                      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   1.36s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.24s  
   3        0       3       -0.01     14.1   1.20s  
   4        0       4       -0.87     13.7   1.19s  
   5        0       5       -1.74     11.8   1.06s  
   6        0       6       -2.43     10.0   927ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   848ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   774ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.5   670ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   499ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   396ms  
  12        0      12       -8.28      1.0   313ms  
  13        1       1       -7.54     17.8   1.71s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.89      3.1   495ms  
  15        1       3       -8.70      2.1   1.34s  
                                      19.2   1.52s  Final orbitals
Iter  Restart  Krydim  log10(res)  avg(CG)  Δtime   Comment
----  -------  ------  ----------  -------  ------  ---------------
                                      20.0   1.43s  Non-interacting
   1        0       1        1.03     15.1   1.33s  
   2        0       2        0.53     14.6   1.22s  
   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   922ms  
   7        0       7       -3.33      8.9   844ms  
   8        0       8       -4.02      7.8   773ms  
   9        0       9       -5.04      6.4   667ms  
  10        0      10       -6.06      3.9   495ms  
  11        0      11       -7.08      2.3   391ms  
  12        0      12       -8.27      1.0   312ms  
  13        1       1       -7.53     17.9   1.69s  Restart
  14        1       2       -7.88      3.1   396ms  
  15        1       3       -8.66      2.1   351ms  
                                      19.2   1.55s  Final orbitals
143.608848 seconds (143.91 M allocations: 31.726 GiB, 5.13% gc time, 25.88% 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