Efficient AB Initio Tight Binding

ABSTRACTTight binding is often seen as a middle ground method, lying between accurate ab iniiio methods, and fast empirical potential methods. The challenge is to make tight binding both as fast and as accurate as possible. One way to achieve this is to take established ab initio methods, and apply systematic approximations and efficient numerical techniques to obtain the greatest possible speed. A recently developed method, employing this approach, is described results presented for silicon, and recent developments (including fully self-consistent extensions) are reported.