Quantum mechanical ab initio calculations of the structural, electronic and optical properties of bulk gold nitrides

In the present work, the atomic and the electronic structures of Au3N, AuN and AuN2 are investigated using first-principles density-functional theory (DFT). We studied cohesive energy vs. volume data for a wide range of possible structures of these nitrides. Obtained data was fitted to a Birch-Murnaghan third-order equation of state (EOS) so as to identify the most likely candidates for the true crystal structure in this subset of the infinite parameter space, and to determine their equilibrium structural parameters. The analysis of the electronic properties was achieved by the calculations of the band structure and the total and partial density of states (DOS). Some possible pressure-induced structural phase transitions have been pointed out. Further, we carried out GW0 calculations within the random-phase approximation (RPA) to the dielectric tensor to investigate the optical spectra of the experimentally suggested modification: Au3N(D0_9). Obtained results are compared with experiment and with some available previous calculations.