How to define kpath for supercell structure

Total energy, geometry optimization, DFT+U, spin....

Moderator: bguster

Locked
abgs01
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:58 pm

How to define kpath for supercell structure

Post by abgs01 » Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:16 pm

Dear abinit users,

I need your help. I want to compare the primitive cell band structure and supercell band strucutre of cubic BaTiO3. I have calculated unit cell band strucuture of cubic BaTiO3 using the attached primitive cell.input file. But, I don't know how to define kptbounds (M, X, R, G, M, R points) variable for supercell BaTiO3. I have also attached the supercell.input file for supercell BaTiO3.
Thanks already for your help.

Best wishes
Attachments
primitive cell.in
(2.37 KiB) Downloaded 202 times
supercell.in
(3.28 KiB) Downloaded 214 times

ebousquet
Posts: 469
Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:13 am
Location: University of Liege, Belgium

Re: How to define kpath for supercell structure

Post by ebousquet » Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:55 am

Dear abgs01,
You have a 2x2x2 supercell such that the zone boundary points of the unit cell (with 1/2 coordinates, i.e. X, M, A, etc) are folded into Gamma point of the supercell. You have to use an unfolding method if you want to recover the right dispersion but it depends what you need, if it is the band gap then this is fine. For the kptbounds, you can keep the same but knowing that 1/2 is folded into Gamma in the supercell.
There is a code in Abinit to unfold the bands but I never used it...
You can also use an external packages to unfold such as:
https://www.ifm.liu.se/theomod/compphys/band-unfolding/
Best wishes,
Eric

Locked