MineralsCloud / qha

A Python package for calculating thermodynamic properties under quasi-harmonic approximation, using data from ab-initio calculations
https://mineralscloud.github.io/qha/
GNU General Public License v3.0
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anisotropic crystal & fixed volume energies with castep #90

Open stanroozen opened 2 years ago

stanroozen commented 2 years ago

Hello QHA developers,

I would like to use QHA to get thermodynamic properties for the mineral tourmaline (trigonal). I am a complete novice to the subject to i apologies if these are very basic questions. I use the software CASTEP for my geometry optimizations and VDOS calculations. I have a question regarding the 'static' input file that was generated using quantum expresso (a software i do not have any experience with).

1) the examples given of silicon and ice VII are both cubic systems, however i saw that the code was used for orthorhomic systems (fosterite) as well. What do i have to change in the input files for anisotropic crystal systems? (my system is trigonal however there are disordered endmembers in the tourmaline system which need supercells to describe them which have P1 symmetry)

2) In castep i can do fixed volume and fixed cell optimizations. which of these two do i have to use to get an static energy at fixed volume? So far i tried

3) what does the pressure mean in the 'static' input file. Is this the internal pressure the cell, eg in the image above the -11.0495 GPa?

Greetings Stan Roozen