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PHYSICAL REVIEW B VOLUME 49, NUMBER 15 15 APRIL 1994 I Generahzed-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and Suorides Philipp Dufek, Peter Blaha, Vladimir Sliwko, and Karlheinz Schwarz Institut fu'r Technische Elektrochemie, Technische Universitat Wien, A 106-0 Vienna, Getreidemarkt 9/158, Austria (Received 2 November 1993; revised manuscript received 13 January 1994) The local-spin-density approximation yields a metallic ground state for the antiferromagnetic insula- tors CoO, FeO, FeF» and CoF2. By using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) we find the diAuorides to be insulators, while in CoO the GGA splits the bands near E+ and opens a direct gap, but a small indirect band overlap remains. For FeO a significant improvement is found but not quite enough to make it an insulator. The magnetic moments and gaps increase. The GGA improves angular (and also in-out) correlations and thus a6'ects the energy bands, a feature in addition to the total-energy im- provement. I. INTRODUCTION The local-spin-density approximation' (LSDA) for treating exchange and correlation efFects within the density-functional theory (DFT) is well established in first-principles calculations for describing the ground- state properties of solids. Although the LSDA has been very successful, there are shortcomings and failures that call for an improvement of it. For example the cohesive energies of most solids and the binding energy of mole- cules are overestimated and the respective equilibrium distances are often too short; the ground state of iron is predicted to be the nonmagnetic fcc rather than the fer- romagnetic bcc phase observed experimentally; the insu- lating antiferromagnetic transition-metal oxides (like MnO, CoO, or NiO} are computed to be metallic or show only a tiny gap, while the undoped parent compounds of the high-T, superconductors (such as YBazCu306, La2Cu04, and CaCuOz) are nonmagnetic metals instead of antiferromagnetic (AF) insulators. Since the LSDA is based on results of the homogeneous electron gas, it is natural to try gradient expansions to improve it, but a straightforward second-order expansion violates impor- tant sum rules. Recently, however, various forms of generalized gradient approximations (GGA) for the ex- change and/or the correlation energy were intro- duced ' ' ' which yield better cohesive energies and equi- librium distances, at least for molecules and solids con- taining light atoms up to the 3d elements. These results have dramatically changed the view of quantum chemists who now often use DFT (with the Becke-Perdew ' GGA) in their calculations of large molecules. The appli- cations of GGA to solids has led to the correct ground state of Fe (Refs. 10 12) and to improved equilibrium lattice parameters for many solids. ' However, it was found that in systems containing heavier elements (such as Pd), where already LSDA predicts good equilibrium volumes, GGA yields too large values' ' and in certain cases overestimates magnetism. '" Leung, Chan, and Harmon' reported for the transition-metal oxides almost no difFerence in the band structures using LSDA or GGA potentials and thus they argued that for these highly correlated systems GGA [in the Perdew-Wang (PW-I) version ] is insufficient and oth- er techniques must be used. For exam le, self-interaction corrected (SIC) LSDA calculations' ' found localization of the metal (M) d states and a large band gap between occupied 0 2p and unoccupied M 3d states. The occu- pied M 3d states were found below the 0 2p band in con- trast to LSDA results, so that these systems were de- scribed as charge-transfer insulators instead of Mott- Hubbard insulators. A difFerent approach was taken by Norman, ' who applied an ad hoc orbital polarization correction (OPC) in a proper basis and obtained an insu- lating ground state for FeO and CoO. He argued that Hund's second rule, which is not properly taken into ac- count in LSDA, must be satisfied to yield an insulator. In this paper, we show that a careful and complete im- plementation of GGA can split bands to yield insulators. We investigate the electronic structure of AF solids, the monoxides (MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO) and difluorides (MnF2, FeF2, CoF2, and NiFz) of transition metals (TM}, by means of the full-potential linearized-augmented- plane-wave (LAPW) method' using GGA as parametrized by Perdew et al. All Fe and Co com- pounds are metallic (Mn and Ni compounds have a tiny gap) when calculated within LSDA, but we show that GGA makes the relevant bands more localized and splits them such that these compounds become insulators or develop at least a band structure with a direct gap and a small indirect band overlap. Thus we demonstrate that GGA not only affects and improves the total energy, but can alter the energy band structure significantly. II. METHOD We use the full-potential LAP& method as embodied in the wIEN93 code in a scalar relativistic version without spin-orbit coupling. In LSDA the exchange- correlation energy (E„, ) is just a functional of the local electron spin densities n t and n & 0163-1829/94/49(15)/10170(6)/$06. 00 49 10 170 1994 The American Physical Society

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Page 1: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

PHYSICAL REVIEW B VOLUME 49, NUMBER 15 15 APRIL 1994 I

Generahzed-gradient-approximation description of band splittingsin transition-metal oxides and Suorides

Philipp Dufek, Peter Blaha, Vladimir Sliwko, and Karlheinz SchwarzInstitut fu'r Technische Elektrochemie, Technische Universitat Wien, A 106-0 Vienna, Getreidemarkt 9/158, Austria

(Received 2 November 1993; revised manuscript received 13 January 1994)

The local-spin-density approximation yields a metallic ground state for the antiferromagnetic insula-

tors CoO, FeO, FeF» and CoF2. By using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) we find thediAuorides to be insulators, while in CoO the GGA splits the bands near E+ and opens a direct gap, but asmall indirect band overlap remains. For FeO a significant improvement is found but not quite enough

to make it an insulator. The magnetic moments and gaps increase. The GGA improves angular (and

also in-out) correlations and thus a6'ects the energy bands, a feature in addition to the total-energy im-

provement.

I. INTRODUCTION

The local-spin-density approximation' (LSDA) fortreating exchange and correlation efFects within thedensity-functional theory (DFT) is well established infirst-principles calculations for describing the ground-state properties of solids. Although the LSDA has beenvery successful, there are shortcomings and failures thatcall for an improvement of it. For example the cohesiveenergies of most solids and the binding energy of mole-cules are overestimated and the respective equilibriumdistances are often too short; the ground state of iron is

predicted to be the nonmagnetic fcc rather than the fer-romagnetic bcc phase observed experimentally; the insu-lating antiferromagnetic transition-metal oxides (likeMnO, CoO, or NiO} are computed to be metallic or showonly a tiny gap, while the undoped parent compounds ofthe high-T, superconductors (such as YBazCu306,La2Cu04, and CaCuOz) are nonmagnetic metals insteadof antiferromagnetic (AF) insulators. Since the LSDAis based on results of the homogeneous electron gas, it isnatural to try gradient expansions to improve it, but astraightforward second-order expansion violates impor-tant sum rules. Recently, however, various forms ofgeneralized gradient approximations (GGA) for the ex-change and/or the correlation energy were intro-duced ' ' ' which yield better cohesive energies and equi-librium distances, at least for molecules and solids con-taining light atoms up to the 3d elements. These resultshave dramatically changed the view of quantum chemistswho now often use DFT (with the Becke-Perdew '

GGA) in their calculations of large molecules. The appli-cations of GGA to solids has led to the correct groundstate of Fe (Refs. 10—12) and to improved equilibriumlattice parameters for many solids. ' However, it wasfound that in systems containing heavier elements (suchas Pd), where already LSDA predicts good equilibriumvolumes, GGA yields too large values' ' and in certaincases overestimates magnetism. '"

Leung, Chan, and Harmon' reported for the

transition-metal oxides almost no difFerence in the bandstructures using LSDA or GGA potentials and thus theyargued that for these highly correlated systems GGA [inthe Perdew-Wang (PW-I) version ] is insufficient and oth-er techniques must be used. For exam le, self-interactioncorrected (SIC) LSDA calculations' ' found localizationof the metal (M) d states and a large band gap betweenoccupied 0 2p and unoccupied M 3d states. The occu-pied M 3d states were found below the 0 2p band in con-trast to LSDA results, so that these systems were de-scribed as charge-transfer insulators instead of Mott-Hubbard insulators. A difFerent approach was taken byNorman, ' who applied an ad hoc orbital polarizationcorrection (OPC) in a proper basis and obtained an insu-

lating ground state for FeO and CoO. He argued thatHund's second rule, which is not properly taken into ac-count in LSDA, must be satisfied to yield an insulator.

In this paper, we show that a careful and complete im-plementation of GGA can split bands to yield insulators.We investigate the electronic structure of AF solids, themonoxides (MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO) and difluorides(MnF2, FeF2, CoF2, and NiFz) of transition metals (TM},by means of the full-potential linearized-augmented-plane-wave (LAPW) method' using GGA asparametrized by Perdew et al. All Fe and Co com-pounds are metallic (Mn and Ni compounds have a tiny

gap) when calculated within LSDA, but we show thatGGA makes the relevant bands more localized and splitsthem such that these compounds become insulators ordevelop at least a band structure with a direct gap and asmall indirect band overlap. Thus we demonstrate thatGGA not only affects and improves the total energy, butcan alter the energy band structure significantly.

II. METHOD

We use the full-potential LAP& method as embodiedin the wIEN93 code in a scalar relativistic versionwithout spin-orbit coupling. In LSDA the exchange-correlation energy (E„,) is just a functional of the localelectron spin densities n t and n

&

0163-1829/94/49(15)/10170(6)/$06. 00 49 10 170 1994 The American Physical Society

Page 2: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

49 GENERALIZED-GRADIENT-APPROXIMATION DESCRIPTION. . . 10 171

E„, [nt, n&]= fne„,(nt, n&)d r,while in GGA it is a functional of these densities andtheir gradients

E„, [n&, n&]= ff(nt, n&, Vnt, Vn~)d r .

We have implemented this formalism for E„,and the cor-responding exchange-correlation potential V„,(which in-volves higher derivatives) into our LAPW code using thePW-II form. Since in the wIEN93 code the potential andcharge density is described without any shape approxima-tions, ' we can compute all required gradients; inside theatomic spheres we obtain radial gradients (based on aspline interpolation on a dense r mesh) as well as angulargradients (analytically) of the charge density, and includeboth in the calculation of V„,and E„,; in the interstitialregion the density is fitted with a second-order polynomi-al from which the gradients are obtained analytically.

We use a well-converged basis of about 500 (800) planewaves for the TM oxides (fluorides) corresponding toR,K,„=8.0 (with atomic sphere radii R, of 2.0 and1.75 a.u. for the TM and nonmetal atoms, respectively)and include local orbitals' for TM 3s, 3p and 0 2s orbit-als. The charge density and potentials are expanded intolattice harmonics up to L =6 inside the spheres and intoa Fourier series of about 600 (900) K stars for the TM-oxides

(fluo

ride) in the interstitial region. TheBrillouin-zone integration was done with a modifiedtetrahedron method using 60 special k points.

III. TM OXIDES

The TM oxides mentioned above crystallize in the sodi-um chloride structure, and some show small distortionswhich we neglect. They are insulators with an antiferro-magnetic type II structure (Fig. 1), where the spin align-ment is parallel in the (111)plane. This AF-II structurecan be described with a doubled, rhombohedral unit cell

FIG. 1. Antiferromagnetic AF-II structure of CoO.

leading to space group R 3m. In Fig. 2 we show for CoO(at the experimental volume} the band structure aroundthe Fermi energy (EF ) and some partial densities of states(DOS) computed with GGA or LSDA. For details ofLSDA results the reader is referred to the paper byTerakura et al. , whose results agree well with ourpresent LSDA calculation. In the LSDA band structure(dotted lines) there is no indication of a gap, whereas us-ing GGA the bands at EF change drastically and splitinto subbands (full lines} producing a direct gap of almost1 eV at, for example, I or Z, while a small indirect over-lap of bands between different k regions remains. In thecubic case the d levels split into eg and t2g states, whereasin the trigonal AF-II structure of CoO the "tz " bandsare further split into bands corresponding to a twofold e(denoted below as es } and an a,s symmetry (Fig. 2}. TheLSDA-DOS shows a strong mixing between e' and a,symmetry indicating that the crystal-field interactions,where t2g is still a good description, dominates. In theGGA-DOS, however, the bands with a

&g symmetry havebeen raised (lowered) in energy for the spin-down (spin-up) states, and are separated from es due to angularcorrelations as will be shown below.

After having described the effect we now analyze thecalculations in order to find the physical origin of theseshifts. For that purpose we compare the spin-up densitiesnt of CoO between LSDA [Fig. 3(a)] and GGA [Fig.3(b}]. We show a section of the (010) plane, where thetwo types of Co atoms, Co(1) and Co(2}, are displayedwith an 0 atom in between (corresponds to edge in Fig.1). The spin-up density n t is the majority spin for Co(1),but the minority for Co(2). Both Co(1) and 0 [in Fig. 3(a)and 3(b)] have an almost spherically symmetric n t whileat Co(2) an anisotropy with t2 symmetry appears. Sincethe t2g states split into eg and a,g subbands according tothe trigonal symmetry of the AF-II structure, the densityaround a Co site does not need to have fourfold symme-try, but in LSDA this fourfold character remains, to alarge extent (with maxima at 5.2 and 4.8 e A }, con-sistent with the fact that the partially filled t2~ bands arehardly split into subbands (Fig. 2). In GGA, however,this anisotropy around Co(2) is enhanced (with maximaat 5.8 and 4.1 e A ), since only the e' subbands are oc-cupied, while the a, band remains almost empty [Fig.3(b)]. The lobe with the smaller (larger) peak points to-wards a Co with the same (opposite) spin orientation (Fig.1).

We try to find the origin of these changes in the densi-ties by investigating the exchange correlation potential

and thus plot the difference QPfor the spin-up electrons [Fig. 3(c)]. At the Co(1) and the0 site the corresponding densities are almost sphericallysymmetric and thus in 5V„,only radial density gradientsshow up with in-out correlation, which causes the wavefunctions to become more localized, as has been discussedby Langreth and Mehl. At the Co(2) position, however,the density is no longer spherically symmetric so that an-gular correlations (gradients) become effective. b V„,shows a strong attractive potential of —180 mRy point-ing along 45 towards Co(1) with the opposite spin (see

Page 3: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

10 172 DUFEK, BLAHA, SLIWKO, AND SCHWARZ 49

GGA ... LSDA GGA LSDA

ag

0

CS

CD

LU

3

~t ~ o lie ~ ~~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ I ~~ ~ ~ ~ I~

t~ ..rw. -----.-

EF~~ Q % ee

~y IR

al&m~ml0 R~g

EF

rrrrei

FIG. 2. Band structure (leftpanel) and symmetry decomposi-tion of the t,g DOS of CoO (instates per eV) for GGA andLSDA.

K U K 0 DOS Dos

Co (1} Co (2}

Fig. l} in contrast to the perpendicular component to-wards Co(2) with the same spin. Therefore, angular gra-dients in GGA enhance the asphericities and lower V„,for the e' symmetry, while V„,remains about the same asin LSDA for the a, symmetry. This attractive potential(which is only partly compensated by the Coulomb po-tential} lowers the corresponding bands with respect tothe others, so that the latter split ofF and become unoccu-pied. Thus GGA yields an efFect similar to Norman's adhoc orbital polarization corrections, ' but from first prin-ciples. It should be mentioned that the asphericity in V„,has been seen before, but for example in the work on ironby Singh, Pickett, and Krakauer" it did not play a cru-cial role in describing the stabilization of the magneticstate (bcc versus fcc).

As mentioned in the Introduction, Leung, Chan, andHarmon' did not find any effect on the energy bands ofTM oxides in contrast to the present work. This calls foran explanation. We have repeated our calculations usingthe same PW-I version of GGA as in their work, but stillobtain substantial changes of the energy bands and al-most the same results as with the more recent GGAform. On the other hand, when we perform a GGA cal-culation omitting all angular gradients inside the atomicsphere but keeping just the radial gradients, we obtainvery similar energy bands as with LSDA. This might ex-plain why Leung, Chan, and Harmon' did not find animprovement of GGA over LSDA and these test calcula-tions illustrate the importance of angular gradients.

It has been demonstrated in several papers in the litera-ture that GGA affects the total energy and thus cohesiveproperties. Figure 4 shows the total energy as a functionof the lattice parameter for LSDA and GGA. TheLSDA equilibrium lattice constant is about 3% too small(as in many other systems}, while GGA leads to almostperfect agreement between theory and experiment. Thebulk modulus obtained within LSDA is 260 GPa and

50

(cj

-10—

KE

-20—CO

CD

LLI

-30—

— 40

K30 E

N20

lUI

10LLI

-407.5 7.7 7.9

exp.

8.1 8.3-'t 0

8.5

FIG. 3. Spin-up electron density n~ of (a) LSDA and (b)GGA calculation with contour values from 0.07 to 4.48 e A(in multiples of 2); (c) spin-up hV„,= V„, —V"„, ; negativecontours (dashed), zero (dotted) and positive contours (full line)with contour lines at 0, +100, +150, and +200 mRy.

lattice parameter (a.u.)

FIG. 4. Relative total energies (circles) adjusted at theminimum and band overlap (gap) bE=EIg(I( ) —EI6(Z) (dia-monds) of CoO as a function of lattice constant for LSDA (opensymbols) and GGA (closed symbols).

Page 4: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

49 GENERALIZED-GRADIENT-APPROXIMATION DESCRIPTION. . . 10 173

drastically decreases to 180 GPa within GGA, very closeto the experimental value of 190 GPa. We have repeat-ed the calculation with GGA omitting all angular gra-dients. Although in this case the energy bands differfrom the full GGA bands and are very similar to theLSDA bands as emphasized above, the equilibrium latticeconstant is almost the same (0.5%%uo smaller) as that of thefull GGA. This demonstrates that radial gradients affectmainly the total energy, while angular gradients canmodify the energy bands.

The main emphasis of the present paper is on the ener-

gy bands in connection with the metal-insulator behavior.We can take the energy difference hE between band 15 atE and band 16 at Z (marked by circles in the GGA bandstructure in Fig. 2} to define a good measure for the in-direct band overlap (or gap). In the LSDA calculationsb,E is about 40 mRy, positive (overlap), and shows only asmall volume dependence. For GGA, however, hE de-creases strongly with volume reaching a negative value(gap) at a lattice parameter about 2%%uo larger than equilib-rium, where one even obtains an insulating ground state.We did not perform any calculations with the smalltetragonal distortion observed experimentally(c/a =0.988), ' which could lead to an insulator withinGGA, but probably not in LSDA.

If the band splitting of the t2g manifold in FeO werequalitatively similar to CoO a metallic state would occur,since FeO has one valence electron less than CoO andthis would lower the Fermi energy into the e' subbandwhich can accommodate two electrons. In order to makeFeO an insulator within a band picture the ordering ofthe onefold and twofold subbands must be reversed withrespect to CoO, so that the spin-up a&g subband is thelower (fully occupied} of the t2g complex, while thehigher lying es subband remains unoccupied. In bothLSDA and GGA this is not the case, but with GGA con-vergence is poor, indicating that the metallic and the in-

sulating configurations are almost degenerate. In fact, wecan stabilize the a,g band below the ez by artificially add-ing and subtracting 5 mRy to the V40 term of the poten-tial for the two spin directions, respectively. A shift of20 mRy already opens a gap, while within LSDA shifts of50 and 100 mRy would be needed to obtain similareffects. Better GGA versions with more emphasis on an-gular correlations (or Hund's second rule) might solvethis in future. The present version goes in the right direc-tion, but is not sufBcient to yield the correct ground state.

LSDA calculations for MnO and NiO yield an insulat-ing ground state, but the gap (Table I) and the spin-magnetic moments (Table II) are smaller than the experi-mental data. Using GGA the magnetic moments areslightly enlarged, approaching experimental, SIC, ' 'and OPC results. Note that the choice of atomic sphereradii (although it is not crucial in our full-potential calcu-lation) determines the attribution of the spin density to aparticular atom and thus the respective magnetic mo-ment depends on R „e.g., for MnO a calculation withRM„=2.0 (2.3) a.u. yields a moment of 3.72@~ (4.28p~ ).

Within density functional theory it is well known thatthe energy bands (Kohn-Sham eigenvalues} do notrepresent excitation energies (gaps) but nevertheless they

TABLE I. Energy gap [eV] according to our LSDA and

GGA calculations and comparison to literature.

LSDA GGA SIC(OPC) Exp.

MnONiOMnF&

FeF2CoF2NiF2

1.0 (0.8')0.4 (0.2')2000.8

1.41.22.40.40.61.4

3 98'2.54' (1.4')

3.6-3.830 43'

'Reference 15.Reference 26.

'Reference 17.~Reference 23.'Reference 22.

are often used for that purpose as a first approximation.Using GGA the band gaps increase, e.g., in NiO from 0.4to 1.2 eV, which is close to the results of Norman' andthus is no longer a small fraction of the experimental gapof 3.0-4.3 eV. ' The nature of the gap is widely dis-cussed: SIC calculations find the occupied M 3d statesbelow the 0 2p states, ' ' while we find them above the0-2p bands and near Ez in both LSDA and GGA. Theexperimental results are ambiguous but we want to stressthat d-d transitions are dipole forbidden and can only beseen at small excitation energies.

IV. TM DIFLUORIDES

TABLE II. Spin-magnetic moments [p~] according to ourLSDA and GGA calculations and comparison to literature.

LSDA GGA OPC SIC Expt.

MnOFeOCoONiOMnF2FeF&CoF2NiFz

3.72 (4.45')3.33 (3.43')2.36 (2.35')1.21 (1.09')4.433.472.541.56

4.153.382.421.384.473.512.621.64

3 57'2.52'1.43'

4493 542.531.53'

4.58' 4 793.323.35,3.81.64~, 1.9'

3 75"

1.61'

'Reference 4.Reference 15.

'Reference 27.Reference 28.

'Reference 17.

Reference 29.~Reference 30."Reference 31.'Reference 32.

Other compounds where the metal-insulator problemoccurs are the AF TM difluorides, which crystallize inthe rutile structure. Some of them, namely MnF2 andNiFz, have recently been investigated using LSDA calcu-lations and an insulating ~round state in agreement withexperiment was obtained. For FeF2 (Fig. 5) and CoF2,however, LSDA leads to metals, where Ez lies in themiddle of the t2s manifold (in the rutile structure the TMatoms are coordinated by F atoms forming a slightly dis-torted octahedron ). These tz states form three sub-bands with d, , d„,+ „andd„,symmetry. 2 TheGGA band structure of FeF2 (Fig. 5) and the correspond-

Page 5: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

10 174 DUFEK, BLAHA, SLIWKO, AND SCHWARZ 49

GGA ... LSOA GGA LSDA

I

W W W eP' ~m ~w

~ ~ I egt2g

0

1CDa

LLI

EF, EF ,"FIG. 5. Band structure (left

panel) and symmetry decom-posed DOS of FeF2 (in states pereV) for GGA and LSDA.

3

-4z r s R z T Y r o oos DOS

ing DOS show that for spin-down electrons one bandfrom the t2 complex, namely, that with d„symmetry, islowered and splits off opening up a gap of about 0.5 eV.(Note that for spin-up electrons the corresponding bandmoves up about l eV mixing into the two e bands. ) ForCoF2 (not shown here) the GGA lowers two of the t2subbands (with d„and d„~+~,symmetry) below Et; lead-ing to a gap of about 0.5 eV. An analysis of V„,(similarto that of CoO) shows that again angular gradients are re-sponsible for this effect.

Similar to the TM-oxide (MnO and NiO) results,LSDA calculations for MnFz and NiF2 yield an insulat-ing ground state, but the gap is very small (Table I). Us-ing GGA the gap is increased and the spin-magnetic mo-ments are in agreement with the few experimental dataavailable (Table II).

V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

We found that GGA yields a significant improvementover LSDA calculations for the metal-insulator problemwhen angular gradients are taken into account, while theradial gradients alone are insufBcient. We applied thesegradient corrections self-consistently, so that V„,canshift some relevant energy subbands leading to more lo-calized bands and opening a (direct) gap. For example,we find FeF2 and CoFi to be insulating, whereas a stan-dard LSDA calculation fails (making them metallic); forMnO and NiO the gap is enlarged, while for CoO a directgap opens but a small indirect overlap remains. Notethat in connection with magnetic instabilities Singh andPickett applied GGA to CaCu02 and found that itmoves the system towards an AF solution but the correc-tions are too sma11 to produce the AF ground state.

We conclude that radial gradients (in-out correlations)affect mainly the total energy and thus are important, forexample, for cohesion or thermochemical properties,while the angular gradients (angular correlations) canshift and localize energy subbands selectively accordingto the magnetic quantum number m obeying Hund'ssecond rule. Thus the important orbital polarizations,which Norman' has introduced on an ad hoc basis, comeout naturally (but still too weak) in GGA. In LSDAthere is a tendency to reduce charge asphericities, sincethe electron-electron Coulomb repulsion often dominatesover exchange-correlation contributions, while GGA in-cludes nonlocal effects that can enhance such aspherici-ties. Therefore, GGA must be used within the self-consistency cycle rather than as a perturbation correctionat the end of a calculation. Already the present versionof GGA yields for certain systems substantially better re-sults, but further work is needed to improve the specificform of GGA. The present results suggest trying furtherimprovements by satisfying additional constraints mainlyon V„,rather than on the related E„,as often done in theliterature. GGA does not solve all difBculties occurringin LSDA, but can already lead to better results in solid-state and molecular calculations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Austrian ScienceFoundation FWF-Project Nos. P8176, M025, andM0134. Part of the calculations have been performed onthe IBM ES-9000 of the Computer Center at the Univer-sity of Vienna within the IBM European academic super-computer initiative (EASI). We are grateful to K. Her-man for creating Fig. 1.

P. Hohenberg and W. Kohn, Phys. Rev. 136, B864 (1964); W.Kohn and L. J. Sham, ibid. 140, A1133 (1965).

J. P. Perdew, J. A. Chevary, S. H. Vosko, K. A. Jackson, M. R.Pederson, D. J. Singh, and C. Fiolhais, Phys. Rev. B 46, 6671{1992).

C. S. Wang, B. M. Klein, and H. Krakauer, Phys. Rev. Lett.54, 1852 (1985).

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~W. E. Pickett, Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 433 (1989).D. J. Singh and W. E. Pickett, Phys. Rev. B 44, 7715 (1991).

7D. C. Langreth and M. J. Mehl, Phys. Rev. B 28, 1809 (1983IJ. P. Perdew and Y. Wang, Phys. Rev. B 33, 8800 (1986).A. D. Becke, Phys. Rev. A 38, 3098 (1988).

Page 6: Generalized-gradient-approximation description of band splittings in transition-metal oxides and fluorides

49 GENERALIZED-GRADIENT-APPROXIMATION DESCRIPTION. . . 10 175

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