A Foundational Potential Energy Surface Dataset for Materials

Abstract: Accurate potential energy surface (PES) descriptions are essential for atomistic simulations of materials. Universal machine learning interatomic potentials (UMLIPs)$^{1-3}$ offer a computationally efficient alternative to density functional theory (DFT)$^4$ for PES modeling across the periodic table. However, their accuracy today is fundamentally constrained due to a reliance on DFT relaxation data.$^{5,6}$ Here, we introduce MatPES, a foundational PES dataset comprising $\sim 400,000$ structures carefully sampled from 281 million molecular dynamics snapshots that span 16 billion atomic environments. We demonstrate that UMLIPs trained on the modestly sized MatPES dataset can rival, or even outperform, prior models trained on much larger datasets across a broad range of equilibrium, near-equilibrium, and molecular dynamics property benchmarks. We also introduce the first high-fidelity PES dataset based on the revised regularized strongly constrained and appropriately normed (r$^2$SCAN) functional$^7$ with greatly improved descriptions of interatomic bonding. The open source MatPES initiative emphasizes the importance of data quality over quantity in materials science and enables broad community-driven advancements toward more reliable, generalizable, and efficient UMLIPs for large-scale materials discovery and design.