The set of DFTB parameter files available in the ADF package were designed by J. Frenzel, A.F. Oliveira, N. Jardillier, T. Heine, and G. Seifert, mainly at the Technische Universität in Dresden, Germany, see also some additional information about the generation of these parameter files. These parameter files are kept in the directory $ADFHOME/atomicdata/DFTB/Dresden.
You can also use a different set of parameter files. Note that different sets of parameter files are often not compatible. Note also that often parameter files were designed for a specific purpose, which may be different than your application, and therefore may give not the desired accuracy. An important place to find parameter files is the DFTB.org web site, where you can request parameter files. After downloading you should put these files in the directory $ADFHOME/atomicdata/DFTB/resourcesDir. The name of the directory resourcesDir can be specified with the key RESOURCESDIR.
RESOURCESDIR DirName
DirName
The name of the directory where the DFTB parameter files are kept. This directory should be a directory within the directory $ADFHOME/atomicdata/DFTB. The default directory name is Dresden. Thus by default the DFTB parameter files in $ADFHOME/atomicdata/DFTB/Dresden will be used.
The DFTB naming scheme for parameter files should be the same as the scheme used in the DFTB+ code. That is, the (mixed-case) name of each atom, separated by a hyphen, and including the extension 'skf' (Eg. C-Co.skf)
