Assessing model-dielectric-dependent hybrid functionals on the antiferromagnetic transition-metal monoxides MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO

Abstract: Recently, two nonempirical hybrid functionals, dielectric-dependent range-separated hybrid functional based on the Coulomb-attenuating method (DD-RSH-CAM) and doubly screened hybrid functional (DSH), have been suggested by [Chen et al, Phys. Rev. Mater. 2, 073803 (2018)] and [Cui et al, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9, 2338 (2018)], respectively. These two hybrid functionals are both based on a common model dielectric function approach, but differ in the way how to non-empirically obtain the range-separation parameter. By retaining the full short-range Fock exchange and a fraction of the long-range Fock exchange that equals the inverse of the dielectric constant, both DD-RSH-CAM and DSH turn out to perform very well in predicting the band gaps for a large variety of semiconductors and insulators. Here, we assess how these two hybrid functionals perform on challenging antiferromagnetic transition-metal monoxides MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO by comparing them to other conventional hybrid functionals and the $GW$ method. We find that single-shot DD0-RSH-CAM and DSH0 improve the band gaps towards experiments as compared to conventional hybrid functionals. The magnetic moments are slightly increased, but the predicted dielectric constants are decreased. The valence band density of states (DOS) predicted by DD0-RSH-CAM and DSH0 are as satisfactory as HSE03 in comparison to experimental spectra, however, the conduction band DOS are shifted to higher energies by about 2 eV compared to HSE03. Self-consistent DD-RSH-CAM and DSH deteriorate the results with a significant overestimation of band gaps.