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A comprehensive analysis of the history of DFT based on the bibliometric method RPYS
2019, Haunschild, Robin, Barth, Andreas, French, Bernie
This bibliometric study aims at providing a comprehensive analysis of the history of density functional theory (DFT) from a perspective of chemistry by using reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS). 114,138 publications with their 4,412,152 non-distinct cited references are analyzed. The RPYS analysis revealed three different groups of seminal papers which researchers in DFT have drawn from: (i) some long-known experimental studies from the 19th century about physical and chemical phenomena were referenced rather frequently in contemporary DFT publications. (ii) Fundamental quantum-chemical papers from the time period 1900–1950 which predate DFT form another group of seminal papers. (iii) Finally, various very frequently employed DFT approximations, basis sets, and other techniques (e.g., implicit descriptions of solvents) constitute another group of seminal papers. The earliest cited reference we found was published in 1806. The references to papers published in the 19th century mainly served the purpose of referring to long-known physical and chemical phenomena which were used to test if DFT approximations deliver correct results (e.g., Van der Waals interactions). The foundational papers of DFT by Hohenberg and Kohn as well as Kohn and Sham do not seem to be affected by obliteration by incorporation as they appear as pronounced peaks in our RPYS analysis. Since the 1990s, only very few pronounced peaks occur as most years were referenced nearly equally often. Exceptions are 1993 and 1996 due to seminal papers by Axel Becke, John P. Perdew and co-workers, and Georg Kresse and co-workers.
The Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD): assessing the accuracy of DFT formation energies
2015, Kirklin, Scott, Saal, James E., Meredig, Bryce, Thompson, Alex, Doak, Jeff W., Aykol, Muratahan, Rühl, Stephan, Wolverton, Chris
The Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD) is a high-throughput database currently consisting of nearly 300,000 density functional theory (DFT) total energy calculations of compounds from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) and decorations of commonly occurring crystal structures. To maximise the impact of these data, the entire database is being made available, without restrictions, at www.oqmd.org/download. In this paper, we outline the structure and contents of the database, and then use it to evaluate the accuracy of the calculations therein by comparing DFT predictions with experimental measurements for the stability of all elemental ground-state structures and 1,670 experimental formation energies of compounds. This represents the largest comparison between DFT and experimental formation energies to date. The apparent mean absolute error between experimental measurements and our calculations is 0.096 eV/atom. In order to estimate how much error to attribute to the DFT calculations, we also examine deviation between different experimental measurements themselves where multiple sources are available, and find a surprisingly large mean absolute error of 0.082 eV/atom. Hence, we suggest that a significant fraction of the error between DFT and experimental formation energies may be attributed to experimental uncertainties. Finally, we evaluate the stability of compounds in the OQMD (including compounds obtained from the ICSD as well as hypothetical structures), which allows us to predict the existence of ~3,200 new compounds that have not been experimentally characterised and uncover trends in material discovery, based on historical data available within the ICSD.