Tight-Binding Density Functional Theory: An Approximate Kohn−Sham DFT Scheme†

The DFTB method is an approximate KS-DFT scheme with an LCAO representation of the KS orbitals, which can be derived within a variational treatment of an approximate KS energy functional. But it may also be related to cellular Wigner−Seitz methods and to the Harris functional. It is an approximate method, but it avoids any empirical parametrization by calculating the Hamiltonian and overlap matrices out of DFT-derived local orbitals (atomic orbitals, AO's). The method includes ab initio concepts in relating the Kohn−Sham orbitals of the atomic configuration to a minimal basis of the localized atomic valence orbitals of the atoms. Consistent with this approximation, the Hamiltonian matrix elements can strictly be restricted to a two-center representation. Taking advantage of the compensation of the so-called “double counting terms” and the nuclear repulsion energy in the DFT total energy expression, the energy may be approximated as a sum of the occupied KS single-particle energies and a repulsive energy, ...