Computing the phonon dispersion and DOS

After computing the force constants using the finite differences or density functional perturbation theory approaches, it is possible to compute the phonon dispersion using the primitive cell as well as the phonon density of states.

Phonon dispersion: Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Compute the force constants.

There are two possible approaches for computing the force constants and then building the dynamical matrix:

Using finite differences with (IBRION=5, 6)
Using density functional perturbation theory with (IBRION=7, 8).

Step 2: Provide a q-points along a high-symmetry path.

Create a QPOINTS file containing a q-points path at which the phonon dispersion will be computed.

Step 3: Compute the phonon dispersion.

To plot the phonon dispersion, the tag LPHON_DISPERSION=.TRUE. must be set in the INCAR file.

If the material is polar, i.e., has more than one different atom type without being centro-symmetric, the long-range dipole-dipole interaction has to be treated by Ewald summation. This is achieved by setting LPHON_POLAR=.TRUE., supplying the static dielectric tensor (PHON_DIELECTRIC) and the Born-effective charges (PHON_BORN_CHARGES). The values for these have to be obtained from a separate VASP run setting the LEPSILON or LCALCEPS INCAR tags. Additionally, the user might specify a reciprocal space cutoff radius (PHON_G_CUTOFF) for the Ewald summation.

The amount of information written to the OUTCAR file can be tuned using the (PHON_NWRITE tag).

Mind: The computation of the phonon dispersion after a finite differences calculation is only supported for IBRION=6. For IBRION=5,7 or 8 the calculation has to be done in two steps as explained in LPHON_READ_FORCE_CONSTANTS.

Phonon density of states: Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Compute the force constants

Same as above.

Step 2: Specify a uniform q-point mesh

Create a QPOINTS file that specifies a sufficiently dense, uniform q-point mesh.

Step 3: Compute the density of states

Set LPHON_DISPERSION=.TRUE. in the INCAR file. The density of states is computed between $[\omega_{\text{min}}-5\sigma,\omega_{\text{max}}+5\sigma]$ with $\omega_{\text{min}}$ and $\omega_{\text{max}}$ the lowest and highest phonon frequency and $\sigma$ the broadening (PHON_SIGMA).

The number of energy points in this energy range is specified by the PHON_NEDOS tag. To use a Gaussian-smearing method for the computation of the DOS set PHON_DOS=1 to use the tetrahedron method set PHON_DOS=2.