47,199 research outputs found
Comparison of performance of van der Waals-corrected exchange-correlation functionals for interlayer interaction in graphene and hexagonal boron nitride
Exchange-correlation functionals with corrections for van der Waals
interactions (PBE-D2, PBE-D3, PBE-D3(BJ), PBE-TS, optPBE-vdW and vdW-DF2) are
tested for graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, both in the form of bulk and
bilayer. The characteristics of the potential energy surface, such as the
barrier to relative sliding of the layers and magnitude of corrugation, and
physically measurable properties associated with relative in-plane and
out-of-plane motion of the layers including the shear modulus and modulus for
axial compression, shear mode frequency and frequency of out-of-plane
vibrations are considered. The PBE-D3(BJ) functional gives the best results for
the stackings of hexagonal boron nitride and graphite that are known to be
ground-state from the experimental studies. However, it fails to describe the
order of metastable states of boron nitride in energy. The PBE-D3 and vdW-DF2
functionals, which reproduce this order correctly, are identified as the
optimal choice for general studies. The vdW-DF2 functional is preferred for
evaluation of the modulus for axial compression and frequency of out-of-plane
vibrations, while the PBE-D3 functional is somewhat more accurate in
calculations of the shear modulus and shear mode frequency. The best
description of the latter properties, however, is achieved also using the
vdW-DF2 functional combined with consideration of the experimental interlayer
distance. In the specific case of graphene, the PBE-D2 functional works very
well and can be further improved by adjustment of the parameters.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figue
Readability of PBE reporting
The standardisation of Public Benefit Entities reporting has developed since 1992. Beneficial PBE reporting requires representations of position and performance, congruent with the Qualitative Characteristics of the conceptual framework. Non-regulation, optional adoption and sector-neutral standards led to issues of erroneous, complicated and misleading language in past reports. After calls for change, sector specific regulations and a tier system was introduced to address negative impacts on PBE reporting, and catering to different PBE types or users. This study aims to investigate if current reporting is meeting expected outcomes of regulation, specifically: Has the 2015 adoption of sector-specific standards impacted the readability of New Zealand PBE's annual reports? Data was collected by a convenience sample of PBE compliant annual reports and the corresponding sector-neutral report. These reports were converted, cleaned and measured for readability (by applying Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level and passive sentences measures). The resulting data was analysed with a Paired t-Test for a significant difference. FRE results indicated 93% of reports were tougher than ‘slightly difficult to read’. Most reports indicated a difference of one point or more, 53% of reports improved, while, 33% of reports declined after implementing the PBE regulations. This study concludes sector specific standards have not resulted in a consistent, statistically significant, difference in PBE for any readability measures studied. The use of jargon and the lack of specificity in readability measures are possible limitations of this research. However, for PBE’s to deliver efficient annual reports for users, further changes may be needed
Systematic investigation of a family of gradient-dependent functionals for solids
Eleven density functionals are compared with regard to their performance for
the lattice constants of solids. We consider standard functionals, such as the
local-density approximation and the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE)
generalized-gradient approximation (GGA), as well as variations of PBE GGA,
such as PBEsol and similar functionals, PBE-type functionals employing a
tighter Lieb-Oxford bound, and combinations thereof. Several of these
variations are proposed here for the first time. On a test set of 60 solids we
perform a system-by-system analysis for selected functionals and a full
statistical analysis for all of them. The impact of restoring the gradient
expansion and of tightening the Lieb-Oxford bound is discussed, and confronted
with previous results obtained from other codes, functionals or test sets. No
functional is uniformly good for all investigated systems, but surprisingly,
and pleasingly, the simplest possible modifications to PBE turn out to have the
most beneficial effect on its performance. The atomization energy of molecules
was also considered and on a testing set of six molecules, we found that the
PBE functional is clearly the best, the others leading to strong overbinding
Automation methodologies and large-scale validation for , towards high-throughput calculations
The search for new materials, based on computational screening, relies on
methods that accurately predict, in an automatic manner, total energy,
atomic-scale geometries, and other fundamental characteristics of materials.
Many technologically important material properties directly stem from the
electronic structure of a material, but the usual workhorse for total energies,
namely density-functional theory, is plagued by fundamental shortcomings and
errors from approximate exchange-correlation functionals in its prediction of
the electronic structure. At variance, the method is currently the
state-of-the-art {\em ab initio} approach for accurate electronic structure. It
is mostly used to perturbatively correct density-functional theory results, but
is however computationally demanding and also requires expert knowledge to give
accurate results. Accordingly, it is not presently used in high-throughput
screening: fully automatized algorithms for setting up the calculations and
determining convergence are lacking. In this work we develop such a method and,
as a first application, use it to validate the accuracy of using the
PBE starting point, and the Godby-Needs plasmon pole model
(@PBE), on a set of about 80 solids. The results of the
automatic convergence study utilized provides valuable insights. Indeed, we
find correlations between computational parameters that can be used to further
improve the automatization of calculations. Moreover, we find that
@PBE shows a correlation between the PBE and the
@PBE gaps that is much stronger than that between and
experimental gaps. However, the @PBE gaps still describe
the experimental gaps more accurately than a linear model based on the PBE
gaps.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure
Ideal, Defective, and Gold--Promoted Rutile TiO2(110) Surfaces: Structures, Energies, Dynamics, and Thermodynamics from PBE+U
Extensive first principles calculations are carried out to investigate
gold-promoted TiO2(110) surfaces in terms of structure optimizations,
electronic structure analyses, ab initio thermodynamics calculations of surface
phase diagrams, and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. All computations
rely on density functional theory in the generalized gradient approximation
(PBE) and account for on-site Coulomb interactions via inclusion of a Hubbard
correction, PBE+U, where U is computed from linear response theory. This
approach is validated by investigating the interaction between TiO2(110)
surfaces and typical probe species (H, H2O, CO). Relaxed structures and binding
energies are compared to both data from the literature and plain PBE results.
The main focus of the study is on the properties of gold-promoted titania
surfaces and their interactions with CO. Both PBE+U and PBE optimized
structures of Au adatoms adsorbed on stoichiometric and reduced TiO2 surfaces
are computed, along with their electronic structure. The charge rearrangement
induced by the adsorbates at the metal/oxide contact are also analyzed and
discussed. By performing PBE+U ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, it is
demonstrated that the diffusion of Au adatoms on the stoichiometric surface is
highly anisotropic. The metal atoms migrate either along the top of the
bridging oxygen rows, or around the area between these rows, from one bridging
position to the next along the [001] direction. Approximate ab initio
thermodynamics predicts that under O-rich conditions, structures obtained by
substituting a Ti5c atom with an Au atom are thermodynamically stable over a
wide range of temperatures and pressures.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Adsorption of Cu, Ag, and Au atoms on graphene including van der Waals interactions
We performed a systematic density functional study of the adsorption of
copper, silver, and gold adatoms on graphene, especially accounting for van der
Waals interactions by the vdW-DF and the PBE+D2 methods. In particular, we
analyze the preferred adsorption site (among top, bridge, and hollow positions)
together with the corresponding distortion of the graphene sheet and identify
diffusion paths. Both vdW schemes show that the coinage metal atoms do bind to
the graphene sheet and that in some cases the buckling of the graphene can be
significant. The results for silver are at variance with those obtained with
GGA, which gives no binding in this case. However, we observe some quantitative
differences between the vdW-DF and the PBE+D2 methods. For instance the
adsorption energies calculated with the PBE+D2 method are systematically higher
than the ones obtained with vdW-DF. Moreover, the equilibrium distances
computed with PBE+D2 are shorter than those calculated with the vdW-DF method
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