Evaluating SCAN and r$^2$SCAN meta-GGA functionals for predicting transition temperatures in antiferromagnetic materials

Abstract: Recent advancements in exchange-correlation functionals within density functional theory highlight the need for rigorous validation across diverse types of materials properties. In this study, we assess the performance of the newly developed meta-GGA r$^2$SCAN and its predecessor, SCAN, in predicting the N\'eel transition temperature of antiferromagnetic materials. Our analysis includes 48 magnetic materials, spanning both simple and complex systems. Using DFT, we compute the energies of various magnetic configurations and extract exchange interaction parameters through a least-squares fitting approach. These parameters are then used in classical Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the transition temperatures. Our results demonstrate that both SCAN and r$^2$SCAN greatly outperform standard GGA and GGA+$U$ methods, yielding predictions that closely align with experimental values. The Pearson correlation coefficients for SCAN and r$^2$SCAN are 0.97 and 0.98, respectively, when compared to experimental transition temperatures. Additionally, we calculate the energy differences between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic configurations to assess the performance of the hybrid HSE06 functional. We found that the HSE06 functional underestimates transition temperatures compared to the meta-GGA functionals and experimental values.