Semilocal approximations to the Kohn-Sham exchange potential as applied to a metal surface

Abstract: Several semilocal exchange potentials usually employed in the framework of density-functional theory (DFT) are tested and compared with their exact counterpart, the exchange Optimized Effective Potential (OEP), as applied to the jellium-slab model of a metal-vacuum interface. Driven by their explicit dependence on the ground-state density, its gradient, and its kinetic-energy density, the three analyzed semilocal exchange potentials approach their respective asymptotic limits faster than in the case of the OEP, all of them having an asymptotic scaling of the form $-\alpha\,e^2/z + V_{\infty}$, with $\alpha < 1$. Here we provide the leading analytic asymptotics of the three model potentials under study, and we find that none of them exhibits the exact OEP slab asymptotics $-\;e^2/z$. While the so-called Becke-Roussel potential's leading asymptote is close to its exact OEP counterpart, the other two model potentials under study approach a material-dependent positive constant value far into the vacuum, resulting in considerably overestimated ionization potentials.