Output Files

The official  py4vasp  Python package can be used to automatically parse most VASP output parameters.  Pymatgen  also has several utilities for VASP output parsing.

OUTCAR

Overview


OUTCAR
820KB, Uploaded 8 months ago

The primary output file in VASP is called the OUTCAR file. There is a ton of info in it. Here are the most important things:
 Iteration : This line specifies the iteration of the geometry optimization procedure and the SCF loop for that given geometry. A value of  Iteration      4(   2)  would indicate "geometry step 4, SCF iteration 2."
 energy(sigma->0) : The value following this line is the current iteration's energy. The unit is eV.
 magnetization (x) : If  LORBIT  is set to >= 11, the atom-wise spin moments are printed in this table, each in units of Bohr-magnetons.

Monitoring


grad2
6KB, Uploaded 8 months ago

Download  grad2  and add the file to your  PATH 
In the command-line, run  which python 
Paste the printed Python path at the top of the file.
Ensure the two files are executable by running chmod +x grad2 
When you want to monitor a calculation, run  grad2 OUTCAR  from the command-line in any directory containing the  OUTCAR  you want to monitor.

The output looks like the following:
1  Energy:  -725.474813  Log|dE|:  2.861  SCF:  12  Avg|F|:  0.146  Max|F|:  0.247  Vol.: 4326.3  Time:  0.23m
2  Energy:  -725.349355  Log|dE|: -0.902  SCF:  12  Avg|F|:  0.522  Max|F|:  1.010  Vol.: 4394.4  Time:  0.23m
3  Energy:  -725.532040  Log|dE|: -0.738  SCF:  15  Avg|F|:  0.123  Max|F|:  0.218  Vol.: 4350.6  Time:  0.31m
4  Energy:  -725.559079  Log|dE|: -1.568  SCF:  12  Avg|F|:  0.182  Max|F|:  0.389  Vol.: 4396.4  Time:  0.23m
5  Energy:  -725.570525  Log|dE|: -1.941  SCF:  10  Avg|F|:  0.115  Max|F|:  0.226  Vol.: 4380.1  Time:  0.19m

A more structured output can be found in  vasprun.xml  and  vaspout.h5  (if VASP is configured to support it).

CONTCAR

The  CONTCAR  file is formatted identically as the  POSCAR  file but contains the most recent set of atomic positions and cell parameters. When restarting a calculation, you can copy the  mv CONTCAR POSCAR  to continue the geometry optimization process.

Volumetric Files

 CHGCAR : If  LCHARG = .TRUE. , the charge density will be written out in this file.
 WAVECAR : If  LWAVE = .TRUE. , the wavefunction will be written out in this file. This is particularly useful when restarting calculations, as they will automatically read this file.

Other Files

 DOSCAR : Data about the density of states.
 EIGENVAL : Data about the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues.
 OSZICAR : Contains data for each SCF iteration. Useful for identifying SCF convergence issues.