Electron momentum density and band structure calculations of α- and β-GeTe

We have measured isotropic experimental Compton profile of α-GeTe by employing high energy (662 keV) γ-radiation from a 137Cs isotope. To compare our experiment, we have also computed energy bands, density of states, electron momentum densities and Compton profiles of α- and β-phases of GeTe using the linear combination of atomic orbitals method. The electron momentum density is found to play a major role in understanding the topology of bands in the vicinity of the Fermi level. It is seen that the density functional theory (DFT) with generalised gradient approximation is relatively in better agreement with the experiment than the local density approximation and hybrid Hartree–Fock/DFT.

► Compton profile of αα-GeTe using a 20 Ci 137Cs Compton spectrometer. ► Compared experimental Compton data with density functional theory. ► Reported energy bands and density of states of α- and β-GeTe. ► EVED profiles analysed to check the covalent character.