EPW is an open-source software for ab initio calculations of electron–phonon interactions and related materials properties. The code combines density functional perturbation theory and maximally localized Wannier functions to efficiently compute electron–phonon coupling matrix elements, and to perform predictive calculations of temperature-dependent properties and phonon-assisted quantum processes in bulk solids and low-dimensional materials. Here, we report on significant developments in the code since 2016, namely: a transport module for the calculation of charge carrier mobility under electric and magnetic fields using the Boltzmann transport equation; a superconductivity module for calculations of phonon-mediated superconductors using the anisotropic multi-band Eliashberg theory; an optics module for calculations of phonon-assisted indirect transitions; a module for the calculation of small and large polarons without supercells; and a module for calculating band structure renormalization and temperature-dependent optical spectra using the special displacement method. For each capability, we outline the methodology and implementation and provide example calculations.
We present a first-principles study of the magnetotransport phenomena in -doped diamond via the exact solution of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation, in which the materials' parameters, including electron-phonon and phonon-phonon interactions, are obtained from density functional theory. This approach gives results in very good agreement with a wide range of experimental data for Hall and drift mobilities, magnetoresistance, and Seebeck coefficient, including the phonon drag effect, at different temperatures and carrier concentrations. In particular, our results provide a detailed understanding of the inherent limits of the exceptionally high mobility and Seebeck coefficient, and predict a large magnetic-field-driven enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient, of up to 25% in a magnetic field of 50 kOe already at room temperature.
We study the effect of doping on the electron-phonon interaction and on the phonon frequencies in doped semiconductors, taking into account the screening in the presence of free carriers at finite temperature. We study the impact of screening on the Fröhlich-like vertex and on the long-range components of the dynamical matrix, going beyond the state-of-the-art description for undoped crystals, thanks to the development of a computational method based on maximally localized Wannier functions. We apply our approach to cubic silicon carbide, where in the presence of doping the Fröhlich coupling and the longitudinal-transverse phonon splitting are strongly reduced, thereby influencing observable properties such as the electronic lifetime.
We report on resonance Raman spectroscopy measurements with excitation photon energy down to 1.16 eV on graphene, to study how low-energy carriers interact with lattice vibrations. Thanks to the excitation energy close to the Dirac point at , we unveil a giant increase of the intensity ratio between the double-resonant 2D and peaks with respect to that measured in graphite. Comparing with fully ab initio theoretical calculations, we conclude that the observation is explained by an enhanced, momentum-dependent coupling between electrons and Brillouin zone-boundary optical phonons. This finding applies to two-dimensional Dirac systems and has important consequences for the modeling of transport in graphene devices operating at room temperature.
Electron-phonon interaction and phonon frequencies of doped polar semiconductors are sensitive to long-range Coulomb forces and can be strongly affected by the screening effects of free carriers, the latter changing significantly when approaching the two-dimensional limit. We tackle this problem within a linear-response dielectric-matrix formalism, where the screening effects can be properly taken into account by generalized effective charge functions and the inverse scalar dielectric function, allowing for controlled approximations in relevant limits. We propose complementary computational methods to evaluate from first principles both effective charges—encompassing all multipolar components beyond dynamical dipoles and quadrupoles—and the static dielectric function of doped two-dimensional semiconductors and provide analytical expressions for the long-range part of the dynamical matrix and the electron-phonon interaction in the long-wavelength limit. As a representative example, we apply our approach to study the impact of doping in disproportionated graphene, showing that optical Fröhlich and acoustic piezoelectric couplings, as well as the slope of optical longitudinal modes, are strongly reduced, with a potential impact on the electronic/intrinsic scattering rates and related transport properties.