Screened van der Waals correction to density functional theory for solids

Lattice constant and cohesive energy are basic properties in the design of materials and devices. However, due to neglect of long-range van der Waals (vdW) interactions, density functional approximations (DFAs) often yield unusually large errors for ionic solids and heavy metals. Here, we propose a model for the dynamically screened vdW correction, including the leading order as well as higher-order contributions. The striking feature of this model is that important screening effects and higher-order contributions are properly considered and that its contribution to the short-range part is removed by a novel damping function for the avoidance of double counting. As a result, the model dramatically reduces the error of the DFA-GGA in lattice constant and cohesive energy. We also find that the three-body interactions are small, due to the screening effects. These observations greatly improve our fundamental understanding of vdW interactions and enhance the applicability of efficient semilocal DFAs.