GW correlation effects on plutonium quasiparticle energies: changes in crystal-field splitting

We present results for the electronic structure of plutonium by using a recently developed quasiparticle self-consistent $GW$ method (\qsgw). We consider a paramagnetic solution without spin-orbit interaction as a function of volume for the face-centered cubic (fcc) unit cell. We span unit-cell volumes ranging from 10% greater than the equilibrium volume of the $\delta$ phase to 90 % of the equivalent for the $\alpha$ phase of Pu. The self-consistent $GW$ quasiparticle energies are compared to those obtained within the Local Density Approximation (LDA). The goal of the calculations is to understand systematic trends in the effects of electronic correlations on the quasiparticle energy bands of Pu as a function of the localization of the $f$ orbitals. We show that correlation effects narrow the $f$ bands in two significantly different ways. Besides the expected narrowing of individual $f$ bands (flatter dispersion), we find that an even more significant effect on the $f$ bands is a decrease in the crystal-field splitting of the different bands.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

The Electronic Correlation Strength of Pu

An electronic quantity, the correlation strength, is defined as a necessary step for understanding the properties and trends in strongly correlated electronic materials. As a test case, this is applied to the different phases of elemental Pu. Within the GW approximation we have surprisingly found a "universal" scaling relationship, where the f-electron bandwidth reduction due to correlation effects is shown to depend only on the local density approximation bandwidth and is otherwise independent of crystal structure and lattice constant.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, This version of the paper has been revised to add additional background informatio

Ab initio LSDA and LSDA+U study of pure and Cd-doped cubic lanthanide sesquioxides

The electronic, structural, and hyperfine properties of pure and Cd-doped lanthanide (Ln) sesquioxides with the cubic bixbyite structure (Ln2O3, Ln ranging from La to Lu) have been studied using the full-potential augmented plane wave plus local orbital (APW + lo) method within the local spin density approximation (LSDA) and the Coulomb-corrected LSDA + U. In the case of the pure systems, our calculations show that LSDA + U gives a better representation of the band structure compared to LSDA. The predicted equilibrium structures and the electric field gradient (EFG) tensor at Ln sites were calculated and compared with those obtained by means of hyperfine techniques and with theoretical results obtained in In2O3, Sc2O3, and Lu2O3 reported in the literature. The origin of the EFG at Ln sites and the role played by the 4f electrons on this quantity are discussed. In the case of the Cd-doped systems, the APW + lo method (also within LSDA and LSDA + U) was applied to treat the electronic structure of the doped system. The role of the Ln 4f electrons on the EFG at Cd impurity sites, and other variables like structural distortions induced by the Cd impurity, were investigated in detail and are discussed and compared with available experimental results. An excellent agreement between the experimental and calculated EFGs was found for all Cd-doped systems.Fil: Richard, Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Muñoz, Emiliano Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Rentería, Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Errico, Leonardo Antonio. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Svane, A.. University Aarhus. Institut for Fysik Og Astronomi; DinamarcaFil: Christensen, N. E.. University Aarhus. Institut for Fysik Og Astronomi; Dinamarc