Rationalizing defect formation energies in metals and semiconductors with semilocal density functionals

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bazantes, Jorge Vega, Lebeda, Timo, Ramasamy, Akilan, Pokharel, Kanun, Zhang, Ruiqi, Perdew, John, Sun, Jianwei
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Bazantes, Jorge Vega
Lebeda, Timo
Ramasamy, Akilan
Pokharel, Kanun
Zhang, Ruiqi
Perdew, John
Sun, Jianwei
author_facet Bazantes, Jorge Vega
Lebeda, Timo
Ramasamy, Akilan
Pokharel, Kanun
Zhang, Ruiqi
Perdew, John
Sun, Jianwei
contents The study of defects in materials is of utmost importance for technological applications and the design of new materials. In this work, we analyze the performance of density functional approximations on two prototypical sets of defective systems: monovacancies in eight fcc metals, and interstitials in the semiconductor Si-diamond. Specifically, we compute defect formation energies using the local density approximation, the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation, the meta-generalized gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN), its regularized version (r2SCAN), the Lebeda-Aschebrock-Kummel (LAK) meta-GGA, and the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof screened hybrid functional. For metals, the local density approximation shows better performance compared to the other approximations, whereas for silicon, the meta-generalized gradient approximation Lebeda-Aschebrock-Kummel yields outstand- ing accuracy, surpassing the hybrid functional and approaching the results of more computationally demanding Quantum Monte Carlo methods. To rationalize the different performances, we study the semilocal ingredients rs, s and α in both the pristine and defective structures. We identify critical regions that indicate the observed trends of the defect formation energies and pave the way for improving density functional approximations.
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rationalizing defect formation energies in metals and semiconductors with semilocal density functionals
Bazantes, Jorge Vega
Lebeda, Timo
Ramasamy, Akilan
Pokharel, Kanun
Zhang, Ruiqi
Perdew, John
Sun, Jianwei
Materials Science
Chemical Physics
The study of defects in materials is of utmost importance for technological applications and the design of new materials. In this work, we analyze the performance of density functional approximations on two prototypical sets of defective systems: monovacancies in eight fcc metals, and interstitials in the semiconductor Si-diamond. Specifically, we compute defect formation energies using the local density approximation, the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation, the meta-generalized gradient approximations (meta-GGAs) strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN), its regularized version (r2SCAN), the Lebeda-Aschebrock-Kummel (LAK) meta-GGA, and the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof screened hybrid functional. For metals, the local density approximation shows better performance compared to the other approximations, whereas for silicon, the meta-generalized gradient approximation Lebeda-Aschebrock-Kummel yields outstand- ing accuracy, surpassing the hybrid functional and approaching the results of more computationally demanding Quantum Monte Carlo methods. To rationalize the different performances, we study the semilocal ingredients rs, s and α in both the pristine and defective structures. We identify critical regions that indicate the observed trends of the defect formation energies and pave the way for improving density functional approximations.
title Rationalizing defect formation energies in metals and semiconductors with semilocal density functionals
topic Materials Science
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05385