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    <p>Hello,</p>
    <p>if the initial position have high symmetry, the relaxation will
      not be able to break the symmetry. You need to break the symmetry
      by hand, by moving the atoms a bit, before relaxing in order to
      achieve a buckled structure.</p>
    <p>kind regards<br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 25/08/2025 20:31, Barsha Pal wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAE7kQ+z9PDV44sQC4J49Q7robAz5E_BMeuWgCcgi-LDGSaHHcg@mail.gmail.com">
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      <div dir="ltr">Hello everyone,
        <div>I am trying to optimize a structure existing in literature.
          It is reported to have buckling not planar. I made the
          pristine (only carbon -- totally planar) analogue of the
          structure and doped it to my target. Now on optimizing the z
          coordinates do not change at all. I need the z to be changed
          as well to get the target buckling. Also the optimization
          converged for a loose criteria </div>
        <div>( energy convergence thresh.=  1.0E-05</div>
             force convergence thresh. =      1.0E-04<br>
        <div>     press convergence thresh. =      5.0E-03) </div>
        <div>and when I tighten the criteria, BFGS fails. I have tried
          optimizing with and without cell_dofree = all and 2Dxy, but
          the z remains unchanged.</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>The input specifications are:</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>&CONTROL<br>
              calculation   = "vc-relax"<br>
              restart_mode  = "from_scratch"<br>
              outdir  = "/tmp/"<br>
              prefix  = "pwscf"<br>
              pseudo_dir  = "/p/"<br>
              verbosity     = "high"<br>
              etot_conv_thr = 1.0D-6<br>
              forc_conv_thr = 1.0D-5<br>
              nstep  = 1000<br>
              tprnfor  = .true.<br>
              disk_io  = "none"<br>
          /<br>
          <br>
          &SYSTEM<br>
            ibrav     = 0<br>
            celldm(1)  = 14.629678225<br>
            nat        = 8<br>
            ntyp       = 2<br>
            ecutwfc    = 170<br>
            ecutrho    = 680<br>
            occupations = "smearing"<br>
            smearing = "mv"<br>
            degauss = 0.005<br>
            <br>
          /<br>
          <br>
          &ELECTRONS<br>
              electron_maxstep = 600<br>
              mixing_beta = 0.3<br>
              conv_thr =  1.0d-6<br>
          /<br>
          <br>
          &IONS<br>
              ion_dynamics = "bfgs"<br>
          /<br>
          <br>
          &CELL<br>
              press   =  0.0<br>
              cell_dynamics  = "bfgs"<br>
              cell_dofree   = "2Dxy"<br>
          /<br>
          <br>
          ATOMIC_SPECIES<br>
          A   000  A.pbe-dnl-kjpaw_psl.1.0.0.UPF<br>
           B  00  B.pbe-nl-kjpaw_psl.1.0.0.UPF<br>
          <br>
          CELL_PARAMETERS (alat=  14.629678225 )<br>
             1.000000000   0.000000000   0.000000000<br>
             0.000000000   1.000000000   0.000000000<br>
             0.000000000   0.000000000   2.583596722<br>
          <br>
          ATOMIC_POSITIONS (crystal)<br>
          A              0.6470402285        0.1471007113      
           0.5000000000<br>
          B                0.6491194122        0.8509186097      
           0.5000000000<br>
          B               0.3508805878        0.1490813903      
           0.5000000000<br>
          A              0.3529597715        0.8528992887      
           0.5000000000<br>
          A             0.1471007113        0.3529597715      
           0.5000000000<br>
          B                0.8509186097        0.3508805878      
           0.5000000000<br>
          B                0.1490813903        0.6491194122      
           0.5000000000<br>
          A             0.8528992887        0.6470402285      
           0.5000000000<br>
          <br>
          K_POINTS {automatic}<br>
            12 12 3 0 0 0</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>NOTE: This is supposed to be a 2D surface with buckling and
          with a band gap.</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>Ashley Cooper</div>
        <div>Phd</div>
      </div>
      <br>
      <fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
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    </blockquote>
    <div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
      <small>Dr. Lorenzo Paulatto<br>
        IR IMPMC - CNRS UMR 7590 / Sorbonne Université / MNHN <br>
        phone: +33 (0)1 442 79822 / telegram: lpaulatto<br>
        <a href="http://www.impmc.upmc.fr/~paulatto/"
          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://www.impmc.upmc.fr/~paulatto/</a>
        - <a href="https://anharmonic.github.io/"
          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://anharmonic.github.io/</a><br>
        23-24/423 B115, 4 place Jussieu 75252 Paris CX 05<small></small></small></div>
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