Investigation of electronic properties of crystalline arsenic chalcogenides: Theory and experiment

The electronic structure of crystalline As2S3 and As2Se3 has been calculated in this paper. We present the energy bands, density of states (DOS) and the Compton profiles using the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) scheme based on the density functional theory (DFT). From the calculated total and partial density of states it is seen that the lone-pair p-states of sulphur/selenium contribute closest to the Fermi energy level. To interpret the theoretical data on the Compton line shape, we have measured the Compton profiles on a 100 mCi 241Am spectrometer. It is seen that the density functional theory within generalised gradient approximation gives a slightly better agreement with the experimental momentum densities. The nature of chemical bonding in arsenic chalcogenides is studied using Mulliken's population analysis and the experimentally measured equal-valence-electron-density profiles; As2S3 is found to be more ionic compared to As2Se3.