Efficient Calculations with Multisite Local Orbitals in a Large-Scale DFT Code CONQUEST.

Abstract

Multisite local orbitals, which are formed from linear combinations of pseudoatomic orbitals from a target atom and its neighbor atoms, have been introduced in the large-scale density functional theory calculation code CONQUEST. Multisite local orbitals correspond to local molecular orbitals so that the number of required local orbitals can be minimal. The multisite support functions are determined by using the localized filter diagonalization (LFD) method [ Phys. Rev. B 2009 , 80 , 205104 ]. Two new methods, the double cutoff method and the smoothing method, are introduced to the LFD method to improve efficiency and stability. The Hamiltonian and overlap matrices with multisite local orbitals are constructed by efficient sparse-matrix multiplications in CONQUEST. The investigation of the calculated energetic and geometrical properties and band structures of bulk Si, Al, and DNA systems demonstrate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the present method. The representability of both occupied and unoccupied band structures with the present method has been also confirmed.