Skip to content

Origin Plotting

Lin Ziyue

I. VASP Plotting

1. Band Structure

Export bnd.dat to your local computer and drag it into Origin

Click on the line plot icon in the lower left corner

Select Column A as X and columns after B as Y

Right-click and select "Apply settings to current row and all rows below" to select all below, then confirm to plot

After plotting, double-click on the axis to start modifications

(1) Scale

Set horizontal start to 0 and end to the maximum value of the x-axis;

Set vertical range according to the image range

This range should be consistent with the x-axis range of the subsequent DOS plot

For horizontal major ticks, select "By Custom Positions". These five values correspond to the five high-symmetry points inserted in k-space.

For example, if 5 high-symmetry points are inserted in the syml file, with 20 k-points inserted in each of the four intervals,

then input the values from rows 1, 21, 41, 61, 81 of the first column into the [Position] box - as shown above

Vertical ticks are optional, as long as they look good

(2) Tick Labels

Set the bottom axis type to "Tick-indexed Dataset"

Input high-symmetry points in order

X R M G R

Left axis remains unchanged

Format: Font color is optional

(3) Title

Change left axis text to E(eV)

(4) Axes and Ticks

Display axis lines and ticks for bottom, right, and top axes, but set both major and minor tick styles to "None"

Keep ticks on the left axis

(5) Reference Lines

The input method for reference line values is the same as for custom tick positions

After input, click Insert, then click Details

Shift-select the inserted lines, uncheck Auto Format, set style to solid line, color to black, and thickness to 1.5

Confirm

Finally, click OK to apply

(6) Adjust Plot Lines

First, click the anti-aliasing icon on the right to smooth the lines

Then double-click on the lines in the plot, select the Line tab, set width to 1, and confirm

(7) Adjust Size

Double-click on the blank area in the plot, select the Size/Speed tab, and you can adjust properties like left, top, width, and height

The final band structure plot is shown in the left figure

2. Density of States

(1) DOS Plot

Import DOS_total.dat

We only use columns A and B to plot the total density of states

Plot with column A as x-axis and column B as y-axis

If you want to integrate with the band structure plot after plotting

First click to exchange X-Y axes

Further adjustments are the same as for the band structure plot

If fill effect is needed, select the plot line and check "Fill Area Under Curve"

Then switch to the Pattern tab

Select appropriate color or pattern

(2) Band Structure-DOS Plot

Now we merge the graphs

Select Graph - Merge Graphs - Open Dialog

In arrangement settings, set rows to 1, columns to 2

And check "Use uniform scale to set layer height"

Finally, merge the two graphs by adjusting graph size or using left/right arrow keys

3. Phonon Spectrum with phonopy

Drag the generated band.dat into Origin

Other steps are exactly the same as for band structure plots, except that you need to find the high-symmetry point path yourself

Open the band.yml file in the folder (open directly with vi editor or notepad in xftp)

For example, to find the second high-symmetry point 0.5000000, 0.5000000, 0.5000000 (note the format)

In CentOS:

1
2
3
# In command mode (press shift+: after entering)
/xxx  # This searches for the word "xxx" in the file, from top to bottom
?xxx  # This searches for the word "xxx" in the file, from bottom to top

In Notepad:

By searching for high-symmetry points, obtain the distance value below, which is the x-coordinate of the required high-symmetry point

The subsequent steps are the same as for band structure plots

4. Phonon DOS with phonopy

Drag total_dos.dat in, the procedure and merging steps are the same as for band structure-DOS plots

II. CASTEP Plotting

1. Band Structure

Enter command:

Dispersion.pl -bs *.bands > *.txt  # Output as txt file usable for Origin plotting

Export to local using Xftp. Then drag *.txt into Origin to directly obtain plotting data

Note when plotting: check the .txt file, columns 2, 3, 4 are K-points and should NOT be used for plotting. Start plotting from column E (column E as X-axis, subsequent columns as Y-axis)

Regarding determination of high-symmetry point positions

First find the K-point coordinates (columns B, C, D) corresponding to the high-symmetry points. The value in column E of this row is the x-coordinate of the high-symmetry point on the band structure plot's X-axis.

How to subtract Fermi energy: Search for "fermi" in the .castep file, the obtained energy is the Fermi energy.

Other steps are the same as before

2. DOS Plot - No Difference

3. PDOS Plot - First Column as X-axis, Others as Y-axis

4. Phonon Spectrum

dispersion.pl F.phonon > phonon.txt

Then plot the same as above for band structure, also note that columns 2, 3, 4 are K-points and should NOT be used for plotting

III. Quantum Espresso Plotting

1. Phonon Spectrum

Plot using the output F.freq.gp. Note that the phonon spectrum output by QE is uniform, and the high-symmetry point positions depend on the number of k-points you initially inserted between high-symmetry points.

For example, with five high-symmetry points and 20 k-points inserted between each interval, when plotting, rows 1, 21, 41, 61, 81 correspond to the first column values in F.freq.gp, which are the X-axis coordinates of the high-symmetry points.

2. Phonon DOS

Plot using phdos.dat, no special instructions

IV. Airss, run.pl for Binary Convex Hull/Enthalpy Difference Plot

Two main points for plotting: connecting lines and adding annotations (mainly for those who don't want to use PS or find it troublesome)

Determining Enthalpy Difference:

Both ends can be pure elements or compounds

If both ends are set as pure elements, the vertical coordinate uses the value on the right of the fourth column listed by the ca -m command, which is the automatically calculated average enthalpy per atom. If there are compounds at both ends (this method can also be used if both ends are pure elements), taking RbF on the left and pure element F on the right as an example

For RbFx

Total enthalpy difference:

E in the formula is the value to the left of the fourth column listed by ca -m

Average atomic enthalpy difference: Total enthalpy difference/(1+x)

Setting Column Values

Taking Rb-F compounds as an example,

First, in the first column, set the number of F in the compound RbFx. If both elements vary, two columns are needed. If F is not among them, set it to 1.

The second column sets the proportion of F in the compound.

The third column C(Y) is set to the enthalpy value in the left of the fourth column listed by ca -m at a certain pressure point.

D(Y) needs to set column values. Right-click on D(Y) - Set Column Values, then input in the following box:

Input corresponding values according to the enthalpy difference formula

Columns E to H are calculations for other pressure points

Columns I to K are convex hull lines. Those showing a plus sign or 0.000 in the sixth column listed by ca -m indicate they fall on the convex hull plot

Copy the enthalpy values of these structures from the enthalpy column to the corresponding columns I to K

Then connect lines to make the convex hull. Open Format - Page Properties - Display to open the dialog below, and select the option to connect straight lines across missing data to connect the lines

You can then change the line style, thickness, color, etc. by double-clicking on the straight lines in the plot

Then for annotations, the simplest way is to copy the legend in the upper right corner, then select no border and change its content, or click Insert Text on the left

Final image editing: double-click on lines, check Group - Edit Mode - Independent

Symbol - Set size to 0 for columns I to K

Set lines I to K to solid, others to dashed, all bold

Other notes: For output images placed in AI, if you want to save as eps format, remember to save the AI file itself as eps format, not just save the image.

V. Convex Hull and Phase Diagrams

See the uploaded convex.opju and phase-diag.opgu

Notes:

Phase diagrams use floating bar chart plotting. Ctrl+left click can specify the color of a specific floating bar segment

About segmented scale creation: Double-click on the scale to see how to select points