Difference between partial density of states and total density of states
Answers
Explanation:
The LDOS, or local density of states, is the the density of state at a particular site of a crystal with some asymetry. For example: A slab will have a different band structure on the surface than in the bulk region.The PDOS is a projected density of states. In the context of VASP this means site-projected DOS, where the information about the different contributions of the different orbitals is computed. You then know which states (spd) contribute at which energy. You have to select the proper LORBIT tag in the INCAR file (e.g. LORBIT=11) to get the spd decomposed DOSCAR file output. The formatting is explained in the DOSCAR file link provided.
The LDOS, or local density of states, is the the density of state at a particular site of a crystal with some asymetry. For example: A slab will have a different band structure on the surface than in the bulk region.The PDOS is a projected density of states. In the context of VASP this means site-projected DOS, where the information about the different contributions of the different orbitals is computed. You then know which states (spd) contribute at which energy. You have to select the proper LORBIT tag in the INCAR file (e.g. LORBIT=11) to get the spd decomposed DOSCAR file output. The formatting is explained in the DOSCAR file link provided.For quick visualization of both of these things I would recommend the free program p4vasp, which reads the vasprun.xml output file and lets you select both special atoms to plot the DOS for (LDOS), or special orbitals (PDOS), or both. For better looking plots suitable for publication you will have to reformat the data provided in the DOSCAR file for gnuplot or some other program, though.
Density of states is given by the number of available states between E and E+dE (in energy space. in momentum space it's between k and k+dk) per unit volume.