Study of the Fermi surface of silver by the orthogonalized plane wave method

The band energy of silver in the metallic state has been calculated by the orthogonalized plane wave method at the symmetry points T, X and L of the Brillouin zone. The p states are seen to be below the s states at the zone faces. The value of E s - E p along with the distortion parameter d (Cohen and Heine) has been discussed to investigate the possible contact of the Fermi surface with the nearest Brillouin zone face L. The results show that the Fermi surface is in contact with the zone face L. A value of the neck radius has been calculated and is compared with that obtained from recent experiments.