Effect Of Surface Interactions On Spin Contamination Errors Of Homogeneous Spin Dimers, Chains, And Films: Model Calculations Of Au/Mgo And Au/Bao Systems

It is well known that unrestricted density functional theory (UDFT) calculations include spin contamination errors. While errors in UDFT/plane-wave calculations have not been clarified thus far, some effects of these errors are investigated. Recently, our group estimated spin contamination errors in UDFT/plane-wave calculation results by developing and applying the approximate spin projection (AP) scheme [Chem. Phys. Lett., 701: 103 (2018), Mol. Phys., 117: 2251 (2019), Molecules, 24: 505 (2019), Appl. Phys. Express, 12: 115506 (2019)]. In this study, a systematic theoretical investigation of the surface effects on the spin contamination error was performed. For this purpose, we selected model systems such as Au dimers, chains, and film adsorptions onto MgO and BaO (001) surfaces. The calculation results showed the dependence on the dimensions of the supported materials and lattice constants of the supports. In general, the effects of spin contamination errors are decreased by interaction with the surface. The effects of the errors increased by increasing dimension; i.e. the increasing order of spin contamination errors is film > chain > dimer. In addition, the spin-polarised states are stabilised because of the interaction with the surfaces, and spin contamination errors occur in some cases where the Au-Au distances are small.