Efficient Global Structure Optimization with a Machine-Learned Surrogate Model

We propose a scheme for global optimization with first-principles energy expressions of atomistic structure. While unfolding its search, the method actively learns a surrogate model of the potential energy landscape on which it performs a number of local relaxations (exploitation) and further structural searches (exploration). Assuming Gaussian processes, deploying two separate kernel widths to better capture rough features of the energy landscape while retaining a good resolution of local minima, an acquisition function is used to decide on which of the resulting structures is the more promising and should be treated at the first-principles level. The method is demonstrated to outperform by 2 orders of magnitude a well established first-principles based evolutionary algorithm in finding surface reconstructions. Finally, global optimization with first-principles energy expressions is utilized to identify initial stages of the edge oxidation and oxygen intercalation of graphene sheets on the Ir(111) surface.