Van der Waals interactions in density functional theory by combining the quantum harmonic oscillator-model with localized Wannier functions

We present a new scheme to include the van der Waals (vdW) interactions in approximated Density Functional Theory (DFT) by combining the quantum harmonic oscillator model with the maximally localized Wannier function technique. With respect to the recently developed DFT/vdW-WF2 method, also based on Wannier Functions, the new approach is more general, being no longer restricted to the case of well separated interacting fragments. Moreover, it includes higher than pair-wise energy contributions, coming from the dipole-dipole coupling among quantum oscillators. The method is successfully applied to the popular S22 molecular database, and also to extended systems, namely graphite and H-2 adsorbed on the Cu(111) metal surface (in this case metal screening effects are taken into account). The results are also compared with those obtained by other vdW-corrected DFT schemes. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.