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Utilities

The wannier90 code is shipped with a few utility programs that may be useful in some occasions. In this chapter, we describe their use.

kmesh.pl

The wannier90 code requires the definition of a full Monkhorst--Pack grid of \(k\) points. In the input file the size of this mesh is given by means of the mp_grid variable. E.g., setting

Input file
mp_grid = 4 4 4

tells wannier90 that we want to use a \(4\times 4\times 4\) \(k\) grid.

One has then to specify (inside the kpoints block in the the seedname.win file) the list of \(k\) points of the grid. Here, the kmesh.pl Perl script becomes useful, being able to generate the required list.

The script can be be found in the utility directory of the wannier90 distribution. To use it, simply type:

Terminal
./kmesh.pl nx ny nz

where nx, ny and nz define the size of the Monkhorst--Pack grid that we want to use (for instance, in the above example of the \(4\times 4\times 4\) \(k\) grid, nx\(=\)ny\(=\)nz\(=\)4).

This produces on output the list of \(k\) points in Quantum Espresso format, where (apart from a header) the first three columns of each line are the \(k\) coordinates, and the fourth column is the weight of each \(k\) point. This list can be used to create the input file for the ab-initio nscf calculation.

If one wants instead to generate the list of the \(k\) coordinates without the weight (in order to copy and paste the output inside the seedname.win file), one simply has to provide a fourth argument on the command line. For instance, for a \(4\times 4\times 4\) \(k\) grid, use

Terminal
./kmesh.pl 4 4 4 wannier

and then copy the output inside the in the kpoints block in the seedname.win file.

We suggest to always use this utility to generate the \(k\) grids. This allows to provide the \(k\) point coordinates with the accuracy required by wannier90, and moreover it makes sure that the \(k\) grid used in the ab-initio code and in wannier90 are the same.

w90chk2chk.x

During the calculation of the Wannier functions, wannier90 produces a .chk file that contains some information to restart the calculation.

This file is also required by the postw90 code. In particular, the postw90 code requires at least the .chk file, the .win input file, and (almost always) the .eig file. Specific modules may require further files: see the documentation of each module.

However, the .chk file is written in a machine-dependent format. If one wants to run wannier90 on a machine, and then continue the calculation with postw90 on a different machine (or with postw90 compiled with a different compiler), the file has to be converted first in a machine-independent "formatted" format on the first machine, and then converted back on the second machine.

To this aim, use the w90chk2chk.x executable. Note that this executable is not compiled by default: you can obtain it by executing

Terminal
make w90chk2chk

in the main wannier90 directory.

A typical use is the following:

  1. Calculate the Wannier functions with wannier90

  2. At the end of the calculation you will find a seedname.chk file. Run (in the folder with this file) the command

    Terminal
    w90chk2chk.x -export seedname

    or equivalently

    Terminal
    w90chk2chk.x -u2f seedname

    (replacing seedname with the seedname of your calculation).

    This command reads the seedname.chk file and creates a formatted file seedname.chk.fmt that is safe to be transferred between different machines.

  3. Copy the seedname.chk.fmt file (together with the seedname.win and seedname.eig files) on the machine on which you want to run postw90.

  4. On this second machine (after having compiled w90chk2chk.x) run

    Terminal
    w90chk2chk.x -import seedname

    or equivalently

    Terminal
    w90chk2chk.x -f2u seedname

    This command reads the seedname.chk.fmt file and creates an unformatted file seedname.chk ready to be used by postw90.

  5. Run the postw90 code.

PL_assessment

The function of this utility is to assess the length of a principal layer (in the context of a Landauer-Buttiker quantum conductance calculation) of a periodic system using a calculation on a single unit cell with a dense k-point mesh.

The utility requires the real-space Hamiltonian in the MLWF basis, seedname_hr.dat.

The seedname_hr.dat file should be copied to a directory containing executable for the utility. Within that directory, run:

Terminal
./PL_assess.x  nk1 nk2 nk3 num_wann

where:

nk1 is the number of k-points in x-direction nk2 is the number of k-points in y-direction nk3 is the number of k-points in z-direction num_wann is the number of wannier functions of your system

e.g.,

Terminal
./PL_assess.x  1 1 20 16

Note that the current implementation only allows for a single k-point in the direction transverse to the transport direction.

When prompted, enter the seedname.

The programme will return an output file seedname_pl.dat, containing four columns

  1. Unit cell number, \(R\)

  2. Average 'on-site' matrix element between MLWFs in the home unit cell, and the unit cell \(R\) lattice vectors away

  3. Standard devaition of the quantity in (2)

  4. Maximum absolute value in (2)

w90vdw

This utility provides an implementation of a method for calculating van der Waals energies based on the idea of density decomposition via MLWFs.

For theoretical details, please see the following publication and references therein:

Lampros Andrinopoulos, Nicholas D. M. Hine and Arash A. Mostofi, "Calculating dispersion interactions using maximally localized Wannier functions", J. Chem. Phys. 135, 154105 (2011).

For further details of this program, please see the documentation in utility/w90vdw/doc/ and the related examples in utility/w90vdw/examples/.

w90pov

An utility to create Pov files (to render the Wannier functions using the PovRay utility) is provided inside utility/w90pov.

Please refer to the documentation inside utility/w90pov/doc for more information.

k_mapper.py

The wannier90 code requires the definition of a full Monkhorst--Pack grid of \(\mathbf{k}\)-vectors, which can be obtained by means of the kmesh.pl utility. In order to perform a GW calculation with the Yambo code, you need to perform a nscf calculation on a grid in the irreducible BZ. Moreover, you may need a finer grid to converge the GW calculation than what you need to interpolate the band structure. The k_mapper.py tools helps in finding the \(\mathbf{k}\)-vectors indexes of a full grid needed for interpolation into the reduced grid needed for the GW calculation with Yambo. Usage:

Terminal
path/k_mapper.py nx ny nz QE_nscf_output

where path is the path of utility folder, QE_nscf_output is the path of the QE nscf output file given to Yambo.

gw2wannier90.py

This utility allows to sort in energy the input data of wannier90 (e.g. overlap matrices and energy eigenvalues). gw2wannier90.py allows to use wannier90 at the \(G_0W_0\) level, where quasi-particle corrections can change the energy ordering of eigenvalues (Some wannier90 modules require states to be ordered in energy). Usage:

Terminal
path/gw2wannier90.py seedname options

where path is the path of utility folder.

Available options are:

Terminal
mmn, amn, spn, unk, uhu, uiu,
spn_formatted, unk_formatted, uhu_formatted, uiu_formatted,
write_formatted

If no options are specified, all the files (mmn, amn, spn, UNK, uHu, uIu) are considered.

Binary (unformatted Fortran) files are supported, though not reccommended, since they are compiler-dependent. A safer choice is to use (bigger) formatted files, with options:

spn_formatted, uiu_formatted, uhu_formatted, unk_formatted

In default, the output format is the same as the input format. To generate formatted files with unformatted input, use option: write_formatted

w90spn2spn.x

The interface between ab-initio code and wannier90 (e.g. pw2wannier90.x) can produce a .spn file that is used by postw90 to calculate some spin related quantities.

The .spn file can be written in a machine-dependent or a machine-independent format depending on the input parameter spn_formatted (the default is false which means the .spn file is machine-dependent) of the pw2wannier90.x. If a .spn file has been generated on a machine with machine-dependent format, and then one wants to continue the calculation with postw90 on a different machine (or with postw90 compiled with a different compiler), the file has to be converted first in a machine-independent "formatted" format on the first machine.

To this aim, use the w90spn2spn.x executable. Note that this executable is not compiled by default: you can obtain it by executing

Terminal
make w90spn2spn

in the main wannier90 directory.

A typical use is the following:

  1. Calculate the .spn file, e.g. by pw2wannier90.x

  2. At the end of the calculation you will find a seedname.spn file. If the file is "unformatted", run (in the folder with this file) the command

    Terminal
    w90spn2spn.x -export seedname

    or equivalently

    Terminal
    w90spn2spn.x -u2f seedname

    (replacing seedname with the seedname of your calculation).

    This command reads the seedname.spn file and creates a formatted file seedname.spn.fmt that is safe to be transferred between different machines.

  3. Copy the seedname.spn.fmt file on the machine on which you want to run postw90.

  4. On this second machine (after having compiled w90spn2spn.x) run

    Terminal
    w90spn2spn.x -import seedname

    or equivalently

    Terminal
    w90spn2spn.x -f2u seedname

    This command reads the seedname.spn.fmt file and creates an unformatted file seedname.spn ready to be used by postw90.

  5. Run the postw90 code.

Note if spn_formatted is set to true in both pw2wannier90.x and postw90 input files, then the .spn file will be written and read as "formatted", so w90spn2spn.x is not needed. However, if an "unformatted" seedname.spn has been created and you do not want to rerun pw2wannier90.x, then w90spn2spn.x can be useful. Also, once a "formatted" seedname.spn has been generated, the step 4 can be skipped if spn_formatted is set to true in postw90 input file seedname.win.

write_pdwf_projectors.py

A python script to extract projectors from a UPF file and write them into a pw2wannier90.x-recognizable dat file, which can be used to compute amn using pseudo-atomic orbital projection.

Usage:

Terminal
path/write_pdwf_projectors.py UPF_filename

where path is the path of utility folder, UPF_filename is the path of a UPF file.

The script serves as a reference for writing the dat file, you can generate your own pseudo-atomic orbitals by some other codes and use them to compute amn.