Electronic Energy Bands in Potassium

The orthogonalized plane-wave method and the cellular method were applied to a calculation of electronic energy levels in potassium, using a potential obtained from a self-consistent field. The energies of twenty-four states at four symmetry points in the Brillouin zone have been obtained. The lowest band has been studied in detail and the qualitative features of the density of states were determined. Departures of the lowest band from free-electron behavior were found. A comparison of higher bands with the results of some other calculations suggests that certain features of band schemes may be reasonably independent of the potential used.