Fermiology of PuCoGa5 and of related Pu-115 compounds

We report computational investigations of the electronic structures of the superconducting Pu-compounds PuCoGa5 as well as of the non-superconducting compounds PuFeGa5 and PuNiGa5. To capture the localization behavior of the Pu 5f electrons, we apply two computational approaches, which are both rooted in the density-functional theory: the local spin-density approximation (LSDA) and the around mean field (AMF) LSDA+ULSDA+U approach. The latter is applicable to moderately localized 5f electrons while the former is applicable to delocalized 5f electrons. Our LSDA calculations show that the Fermi surfaces of the three Pu-115 compounds are sensitive to the amount of band filling, i.e., the number of electrons of the 3d element. Precisely at the electron filling corresponding to PuCoGa5 the Fermi surface has a particularly two-dimensional shape. AMF–LSDA+U+U calculations (with a Coulomb U of about 3 eV and exchange J of 0.6 eV) lead to a non-magnetic ground state for PuCoGa5, in which the 5f states are shifted to a higher binding energy, in better agreement with photoemission data. The Fermi surface of PuCoGa5 computed with the AMF–LSDA+U+U approach is nonetheless rather two-dimensional and similar to the LSDA Fermi surface. The AMF–LSDA+U+U approach with a Coulomb U   of ≈3≈3  eV would thus predict an electronic structure for PuCoGa5 in accord with several experimental data.