<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear PWSCF users,</div>
<div> I have a question about the polarization unit which has confused me for a long time.</div>
<div> The atomic unit of electric field is: e/a0^2 where 'e' is the electron charge and a0 is the Bohr radius. The unit of polarization (i.e. dipole per unit volume) should have the same unit as electric field. However from the source code c_phase_field.f90(version4.0.2), the output of dipole per cell has a factor sqrt(2) which is the electron in the Ry units. So 'e' becomes sqrt(2).</div>
<div> Then if I want to calculate P/E which is dimensionless, shall I convert the output of P into P/sqrt(2). Note when we input the electric field E, E is in the atomic unit, i.e. 'e' is not converted into sqrt(2).</div>
<div> I am just confused that since you use atomic unit, why you explicitly convert 'e' into sqrt(2) rather than implicitly retain it in the unit?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Hanghui Chen</div>
<div>Department of Physics,</div>
<div>Yale University</div></div>