  We present a detailed study of the use of localized spherical-wave basis
sets, first introduced in the context of linear-scaling, in first-principles
density-functional calculations. Several parameters that control the
completeness of this basis set are fully investigated on systems such as
molecules and bulk crystalline silicon. We find that the results are in good
agreement with those obtained using the extended plane-wave basis set. Since
the spherical-wave basis set is accurate, easy to handle, relatively small, and
can be systematically improved, we expect it to be of use in other
applications.
