polarization¶

The static polarization describes the electric dipole moment per unit volume.

Static polarization arises in a material in response to a constant external electric field. In VASP, we compute the linear response of the system when applying a EFIELD. Static polarization is a key characteristic of ferroelectric materials that exhibit a spontaneous electric polarization that persists even in the absence of an external electric field.

Note that the polarization is only well defined relative to a reference system. The absolute value can change by a polarization quantum if some charge or ion leaves one side of the unit cell and reenters at the opposite side. Therefore you always need to compare changes of polarization.

print()¶

Print a string representation of this instance.

read(*args, **kwargs)¶

Convenient wrapper around to_dict. Check that function for examples and optional arguments.

selections()¶

Returns possible alternatives for this particular quantity VASP can produce.

The returned dictionary contains a single item with the name of the quantity mapping to all possible selections. Each of these selection may be passed to other functions of this quantity to select which output of VASP is used.

Returns:

The key indicates this quantity and the values possible choices for arguments to other functions of this quantity.

Return type:

dict

to_dict()¶

Read electronic and ionic polarization into a dictionary

Returns:

Contains the electronic and ionic dipole moments.

Return type:

dict