.. module:: ase.phonons

Phonon calculations
-------------------

Module for calculating vibrational normal modes for periodic systems using the
so-called small displacement method (see e.g. [Alfe]_). So far, space-group
symmetries are not exploited to reduce the number of atomic displacements that
must be calculated and subsequent symmetrization of the force constants.

For polar materials the dynamical matrix at the zone center acquires a
non-analytical contribution that accounts for the LO-TO splitting. This
contribution requires additional functionality to evaluate and is not included
in the present implementation. Its implementation in conjunction with the small
displacement method is described in [Wang]_.


Example
-------

Simple example showing how to calculate the phonon dispersion for bulk aluminum
using a 7x7x7 supercell within effective medium theory::

  from ase.structure import bulk
  from ase.calculators.emt import EMT
  from ase.dft.kpoints import ibz_points, get_bandpath
  from ase.phonons import Phonons
  
  # Setup crystal and EMT calculator
  atoms = bulk('Al', 'fcc', a=4.05)
  calc = EMT()
  
  # Phonon calculator
  N = 7
  ph = Phonons(atoms, calc, supercell=(N, N, N), delta=0.05)
  ph.run()
  
  # Read forces and assemble the dynamical matrix
  ph.read(acoustic=True)
  
  # High-symmetry points in the Brillouin zone
  points = ibz_points['fcc']
  G = points['Gamma']
  X = points['X']
  W = points['W']
  K = points['K']
  L = points['L']
  U = points['U']

  point_names = ['$\Gamma$', 'X', 'U', 'L', '$\Gamma$', 'K']
  path = [G, X, U, L, G, K]

  # Band structure in meV
  path_kc, q, Q = get_bandpath(path, atoms.cell, 100)
  omega_kn = 1000 * ph.band_structure(path_kc)

  # Calculate phonon DOS
  omega_e, dos_e = ph.dos(kpts=(50, 50, 50), npts=5000, delta=5e-4)
  omega_e *= 1000

  # Plot the band structure and DOS
  import pylab as plt
  plt.figure(1, (8, 6))   
  plt.axes([.1, .07, .67, .85])
  for n in range(len(omega_kn[0])):
      omega_n = omega_kn[:, n]
      plt.plot(q, omega_n, 'k-', lw=2)

  plt.xticks(Q, point_names, fontsize=18)
  plt.yticks(fontsize=18)
  plt.xlim(q[0], q[-1])
  plt.ylabel("Frequency ($\mathrm{meV}$)", fontsize=22)
  plt.grid('on')

  plt.axes([.8, .07, .17, .85])
  plt.fill_between(dos_e, omega_e, y2=0, color='lightgrey', edgecolor='k', lw=1)
  plt.ylim(0, 35)
  plt.xticks([], [])
  plt.yticks([], [])
  plt.xlabel("DOS", fontsize=18)
  plt.show()

.. image:: Al_phonon.png

Mode inspection using ase-gui::
  
  # Write modes for specific q-vector to trajectory files  
  ph.write_modes([l/2 for l in L], branches=[2], repeat=(8, 8, 8), kT=3e-4)

.. image:: Al_mode.*

.. [Alfe] D. Alfe, PHON: A program to calculate phonons using the small
          displacement method, Comput. Phys. Commun. 180, 2622 (2009)
.. [Wang] Y. Wang *et al.*, A mixed-space approach to first-principles
          calculations of phonon frequencies for polar materials, J. Phys.:
          Cond. Matter 22, 202201 (2010)
