Noncollinear DFT+$U$ and Hubbard parameters with fully-relativistic ultrasoft pseudopotentials

Abstract

The magnetic, noncollinear parametrization of Dudarev's DFT+$U$ method is generalized to fully-relativistic ultrasoft pseudopotentials. We present the definition of the DFT+$U$ total energy functional, and the calculation of forces and stresses in the case of orthogonalized atomic orbitals defining the localised Hubbard manifold, where additional contributions arising from the derivative of the inverse square root of the overlap matrix appear. We further extend the perturbative calculation of the Hubbard $U$ parameters within density-functional perturbation theory to the noncollinear relativistic case, by exploiting an existing and recently developed theoretical approach that takes advantage of the time-reversal operator to solve a second Sternheimer equation. We validate and apply the new scheme by studying the electronic structure and the thermodynamics of the binary compounds EuX (where X = O, S, Se, Te is a chalcogen atom), as representative simple crystals, and of the pyrochlore Cd$_2$Os$_2$O$_7$, representative of a more structurally complex oxide.