Accurate Kohn–Sham DFT with the speed of tight binding: Current techniques and future directions in materials modelling

We present a review of methodological and implementation details of the AIMPRO Kohn–Sham density functional code. It is demonstrated that full Kohn–Sham density functional theory calculations can be performed in a time only marginally greater than tight binding implementations and a route is opened to achieve full and demonstrable convergence with respect to basis size. Topics covered will include both the kernel and functionality of the current code, a discussion of recent developments as well as future research directions and perspectives. Also, a broad discussion regarding the application of these methods is made that, it is hoped, will serve as a useful guide to application specialists.