Material-Specific Optimization of Gaussian Basis Sets against Plane Wave Data

Coupled Perturbed Approach to Dual Basis Sets for Molecules and Solids. II: Energy and Band Corrections for Periodic Systems

When trying to reach convergence of quantum chemical calculations toward the complete basis set limit, crystalline solids generally prove to be more challenging than molecules. This is due both to the closer packing of atoms─hence, to linear dependencies─and to the problematic behavior of Ewald techniques used for dealing with the infinite character of Coulomb sums. Thus, a dual basis set approach is even more desirable for periodic systems than for molecules. In such an approach, the self-consistent procedure is implemented in a small basis set, and the effect of the enlargement of the basis set is estimated a posteriori. In this paper, we extend to crystalline solids our previous coupled perturbed dual basis set approach [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2020, 16, 1, 340-353] in which the basis set enlargement is treated as a perturbation. Among the notable features of this approach are (i) the possibility of obtaining not only a correction to the energy but also to energy bands and electron density; (ii) the absence of a diagonalization step for the full Fock matrix in the large basis set; and (iii) the possibility of extrapolating low order perturbation energy corrections to infinite order. We also present here the first periodic implementation of the dual basis set method of Liang and Head-Gordon [J. Phys. Chem. A 2004, 108, 3206-3210]. The effectiveness of both approaches is, then, compared on a small, but representative, set of solids.

Challenges with relativistic GW calculations in solids and molecules

For molecules and solids containing heavy elements, accurate electronic-structure calculations require accounting not only for electronic correlations but also for relativistic effects. In molecules, relativity can lead to severe changes in the ground-state description. In solids, the interplay between both correlation and relativity can change the stability of phases or it can lead to an emergence of completely new phases. Traditionally, the simplest illustration of relativistic effects can be done either by including pseudopotentials in non-relativistic calculations or alternatively by employing large all-electron basis sets in relativistic methods. By analyzing different electronic properties (band structure, equilibrium lattice constant and bulk modulus) in semiconductors and insulators, we show that capturing the interplay of relativity and electron correlation can be rather challenging in Green's function methods. For molecular problems with heavy elements, we also observe that similar problems persist. We trace these challenges to three major problems: deficiencies in pseudopotential treatment as applied to Green's function methods, the scarcity of accurate and compact all-electron basis sets that can be converged with respect to the basis-set size, and linear dependencies arising in all-electron basis sets, particularly when employing Gaussian orbitals. Our analysis provides detailed insight into these problems and opens a discussion about potential approaches to mitigate them.

Low-Scaling Algorithm for the Random Phase Approximation Using Tensor Hypercontraction with k-point Sampling

We present a low-scaling algorithm for the random phase approximation (RPA) with k-point sampling in the framework of tensor hypercontraction (THC) for electron repulsion integrals (ERIs). The THC factorization is obtained via a revised interpolative separable density fitting (ISDF) procedure with a momentum-dependent auxiliary basis for generic single-particle Bloch orbitals. Our formulation does not require preoptimized interpolating points or auxiliary bases, and the accuracy is systematically controlled by the number of interpolating points. The resulting RPA algorithm scales linearly with the number of k-points and cubically with the system size without any assumption on sparsity or locality of orbitals. The errors of ERIs and RPA energy show rapid convergence with respect to the size of the THC auxiliary basis, suggesting a promising and robust direction to construct efficient algorithms of higher order many-body perturbation theories for large-scale systems.

Quantifying Intramolecular Basis Set Superposition Errors

We show that medium-sized Gaussian basis sets lead to significant intramolecular basis set superposition errors at Hartree-Fock and density functional levels of theory, with artificial stabilization of compact over extended conformations for a 186 atom deca-peptide. Errors of ∼80 and ∼10 kJ/mol are observed, with polarized double zeta and polarized triple zeta quality basis sets, respectively. Two different procedures for taking the basis set superposition error into account are tested. While both reduce the error, it appears that polarized quadruple zeta basis sets are required to reduce the error below a few kJ/mol. Alternatively, the basis set superposition error can be eliminated using multiresolution methods based on Multiwavelets.

Ground-State Properties of Metallic Solids from Ab Initio Coupled-Cluster Theory

Metallic solids are an enormously important class of materials, but they are a challenging target for accurate wave function-based electronic structure theories and have not been studied in great detail by such methods. Here, we use coupled-cluster theory with single and double excitations (CCSD) to study the structure of solid lithium and aluminum using optimized Gaussian basis sets. We calculate the equilibrium lattice constant, bulk modulus, and cohesive energy and compare them to experimental values, finding accuracy comparable to common density functionals. Because the quantum chemical "gold standard" CCSD(T) (CCSD with perturbative triple excitations) is inapplicable to metals in the thermodynamic limit, we test two approximate improvements to CCSD, which are found to improve the results.

Correlation-Consistent Gaussian Basis Sets for Solids Made Simple

The rapidly growing interest in simulating condensed-phase materials using quantum chemistry methods calls for a library of high-quality Gaussian basis sets suitable for periodic calculations. Unfortunately, most standard Gaussian basis sets commonly used in molecular simulation show significant linear dependencies when used in close-packed solids, leading to severe numerical issues that hamper the convergence to the complete basis set (CBS) limit, especially in correlated calculations. In this work, we revisit Dunning's strategy for construction of correlation-consistent basis sets and examine the relationship between accuracy and numerical stability in periodic settings. We find that limiting the number of primitive functions avoids the appearance of problematic small exponents while still providing smooth convergence to the CBS limit. As an example, we generate double-, triple-, and quadruple-ζ correlation-consistent Gaussian basis sets for periodic calculations with Goedecker-Teter-Hutter (GTH) pseudopotentials. Our basis sets cover the main-group elements from the first three rows of the periodic table. Especially for atoms on the left side of the periodic table, our basis sets are less diffuse than those used in molecular calculations. We verify the fast and reliable convergence to the CBS limit in both Hartree-Fock and post-Hartree-Fock (MP2) calculations, using a diverse test set of 19 semiconductors and insulators.

Approaching the basis set limit in Gaussian-orbital-based periodic calculations with transferability: Performance of pure density functionals for simple semiconductors

Simulating solids with quantum chemistry methods and Gaussian-type orbitals (GTOs) has been gaining popularity. Nonetheless, there are few systematic studies that assess the basis set incompleteness error (BSIE) in these GTO-based simulations over a variety of solids. In this work, we report a GTO-based implementation for solids and apply it to address the basis set convergence issue. We employ a simple strategy to generate large uncontracted (unc) GTO basis sets that we call the unc-def2-GTH sets. These basis sets exhibit systematic improvement toward the basis set limit as well as good transferability based on application to a total of 43 simple semiconductors. Most notably, we found the BSIE of unc-def2-QZVP-GTH to be smaller than 0.7 mEh per atom in total energies and 20 meV in bandgaps for all systems considered here. Using unc-def2-QZVP-GTH, we report bandgap benchmarks of a combinatorially designed meta-generalized gradient approximation (mGGA) functional, B97M-rV, and show that B97M-rV performs similarly (a root-mean-square-deviation of 1.18 eV) to other modern mGGA functionals, M06-L (1.26 eV), MN15-L (1.29 eV), and Strongly Constrained and Appropriately Normed (SCAN) (1.20 eV). This represents a clear improvement over older pure functionals such as local density approximation (1.71 eV) and Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) (1.49 eV), although all these mGGAs are still far from being quantitatively accurate. We also provide several cautionary notes on the use of our uncontracted bases and on future research on GTO basis set development for solids.