Efficiency in BAND

There are several unique features to BAND. In contrast to plane wave codes, BAND can do true slab calculations with an infinite vacuum on both sides, so that no artificial and inefficient slab-gap approach is needed. When it comes to basis sets, BAND has the option to add numerical atomic orbitals (exact solutions for the free atom) to the basis set, and these are even better than STOs. Furthermore, each basis function can be confined to limit its range to improve the linear scaling of the program.