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XCrySDen --
(X-Window)
                          CRYstalline Structures and DENsities

[Figure]
XCrySDen's Fermi surface viewer

Table of Contents

Visualization of Fermi surface
   Creating the BXSF file
   Description of Fermi surface viewer
        Description of top-toolbox
        Description of left-toolbox
        Description of status frame
        Pop-up menu
        Mouse events for display window

Visualization of Fermi surface

Creating the BXSF file

XCrySDen only visualizes Fermi surfaces. This means it is user responsibility to calculate eigenvalues in the irreducible wedge of Brillouin zone (IBZ). These IBZ eigenvalues should then be generated over the whole BZ, and stored in proper format, which is called Band XSF (BXSF). The BXSF file can contain the eigenvalues of an arbitrary number of bands. Here you can find all the details about the BXSF format. Once the BXSF file is constructed load it as xcrysden --bxsf file.bxsf or use the File-->Open Structure ...-->Open BXSF (i.e. Fermi surface files) . In a while the Fermi surface will be displayed in a viewer window. Actually, the viewer is composed from notebook, holding the corresponding Fermi surfaces of particular bands in separate pages. Note for WIEN users: XCrySDen can automatically calculate the eigenvalues using the WIEN program, and generate the BXSF file. Please find more informations here.

Description of Fermi surface viewer

Fermi surface viewer is composed from several pages, each holding a Fermi surface of particular band. In bellow figure, we see three tabs (i.e. Band #1, Band #2, and Band #3) aimed at switching between different pages. At the top of each page a top-toolbox is located. The left-toolbox is located on the left side, while on the bottom we have a status frame.
Fermi surface Viewer

From the version 1.4 on the XCrySDen can display the Fermi surfaces of all the bands together (i.e. multi-band display of Fermi surface). This option is accessed on the last (right-most) page.

multi-band Fermi surface

Description of top-toolbox

  • Degree of Interpolation
    The degree of interpolation can be set with the scale-widget. Press the [Submit] for performing the interpolation (it takes some time). The interpolation is the so-called LCASI interpolation, which gives superior results to spline interpolation, since it quenches the oscillations. Use this feature to improve the quality of surfaces.
     
  • Zoom step
    The zoom-step can be set with scale-widget. Pressing [+] button enlarges Fermi surface, while the [-] button shrinks the Fermi surface by zoom-step amount.
     
  • Revert Sides
    Reverts the front and back sides of the surface, i.e., front-side becomes back-side and vice-versa.
     
  • Revert Normals
    Use this button when the illumination of the Fermi surface is odd.
Here you can read more details about the Revert Sides/Revert Normals issues.

Description of left-toolbox

There are seven buttons located on the left-toolbox. Their function is the following:
Brillouin
                                          zone -- displays Fermi surface in Brillouin zone (BZ)

Reciprocal
                                            unit cell -- displays Fermi surface in reciprocal unit cell

Toggle
                                            croping -- toggles the cropping of Fermi surface to BZ

Toggle
                                            cell display -- toggles the display of the BZ and reciprocal unit cell frames

Wireframe mode -- displays the BZ and reciprocal unit cell in wireframe mode

Solid mode -- displays the BZ and reciprocal unit cell in transparent-solid mode

Solid+wire mode -- displays the BZ and reciprocal unit cell in transparent-solid + wireframe mode

Description of status frame

Status frame is located on the bottom of each page. On the left side of the status frame the following informations are displayed: Fermi energy, minimum eigenvalue of the current band, and maximum eigenvalue of the current band. On the right side of the status frame the Isolevel: [ ] entry is located where one can set the isovalue of the isosurface to display (hence can be different from Fermi level).

Pop-up menu

The Fermi surface viewer does not use conventional menus. Instead it uses the pop-up menu which appears upon right mouse button click (the other mouse events are described in the Mouse events for display window section). The pop-up menu together with its five cascades look like:
Popup
                                                      Menu Palette
                                                      Menu File
                                                      Menu
Popup menu Palette cascade File cascade
View
                                                      Menu Display
                                                      Menu Modify
                                                      Menu
View cascade Display cascade Modify cascade

Mouse events for display window

  • Rotation: press-and-hold left mouse button and move the pointer
  • Zoom (+): press-and-hold Shift + Left mouse button and move the pointer up
  • Zoom (-): press-and-hold Shift + Left mouse button and move the pointer down
  • Pop-up menu: press-and-hold the right mouse button

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This document was last modified on Tue May 31 10:23:33 CEST 2005