STM calculations

Description

A plugin for Util/plstm of the Siesta distribution, a tool to simulate STM images. The code plstm is able to process the .LDOS file produced by Siesta. The .LDOS file contains informations on the local density of states (LDOS) in an energy window. In the Tersoff-Hamann approximation, the LDOS can be used as a proxy for the simulation of STM experiments. This plugin requires in input the AiiDA folder where the .LDOS folder was generated and few other parameters (see Inputs section). It produces an array that can be plotted to obtain the STM images. The plugin is implemented in the class STMCalculation.

Supported Siesta versions

At least 4.0.1 of the 4.0 series, 4.1-b3 of the 4.1 series and the MaX-1.0 release, which can be found in the development platform (https://gitlab.com/siesta-project/siesta). For more up to date info on compatibility, please check the wiki.

Inputs

Some examples are referenced in the following list. They are located in the folder aiida_siesta/examples/plugins/stm.

  • code, class Code, Mandatory

    A code object linked to a plstm executable. If you setup the code plstm1 on machine kelvin following the aiida guidelines, then the code is selected in this way:

    codename = 'plstm1@kelvin'
    from aiida.orm import Code
    code = Code.get_from_string(codename)
    
  • mode, class Str, Mandatory

    Allowed values are constant-height or constant-current, corresponding to the two operation modes of the STM that are supported by the plstm code. Examples for both modes are presented in the example folder.

  • value, class Float, Mandatory

    The value of height or current at which the user wants to simulate the STM. The height must be expressed in Angstrom, the current in e/bohr**3.

  • ldos_folder, class RemoteData, Mandatory

    The parent folder of a previous Siesta calculation in which the .LDOS file was generated. To have more information on how to produce the .LDOS file, one can refer to the example aiida_siesta/examples/plugins/siesta/example_ldos.py. Please note that the ldos_folder must be on the same machine on which the STM analysis is performed. In other words, the input code must be installed on the same machine where the ldos_folder resides. This is a limitation of AiiDA that can not copy between different computers, but it is also required by plstm itself, as the .LDOS file is produced in an unformatted way.

  • spin_option, class Str, Optional

    Input port that allows the selection of the spin options offered by plstm. It follows the same syntax of the code. The value “q” selects a total charge analysis. The value “s” selects the total spin magnitude analyisis (only available if the parent Siesta calculation is spin polarized). Finally, the values “x”, “y” or “z” indicate a separate analysis of one the three spin components (only available if the parent Siesta calculation is performed with non-collinear options). If the port is not specified the default “q” option is activated.

  • settings, class Str, Optional

    A port settings is available to activate some advanced features. For instance the modification of the command line instructions and the addition of files to retreave. For more info, the corresponding section of the Standard Siesta Plugin can be seen here.

Submitting the calculation

The submission of any CalcJob of AiiDA always follows the same schema. Therefore, to understand how to submit a STM calculation, it is sufficient to follow the explanation of the corresponding section of the Standard Siesta Plugin. The only change is to import the correct plugin:

from aiida_siesta.calculations.stm import STMCalculation
builder = STMCalculation.get_builder()

and, of course, to define the correct inputs allowed by STMCalculation (previous section).

Outputs

  • stm_array ArrayData

    A collection of three 2D arrays (grid_X, grid_Y, STM) holding the section or topography information. They follow the meshgrid convention in Numpy. A heat-map plot can be generated with the get_stm_image.py script in the repository of examples.

  • output_parameters Dict

    At this point, it constains only the parser information and the name of the retrieved file where the STM info were stored.

Errors

Errors during the parsing stage are reported in the log of the calculation (accessible with the verdi process report command).