The Band Structure of Bismuth Telluride

Calculations of the band structure of Bi 2 Te 3 are carried out by means of a pseudopotential approach. The pseudopotential used in the calculation is the model potential of Abarenkov, Animalu and Heine. The spin-orbit term is included from the start. The inclusion of the spin-orbit term serves to avoid band overlap throughout the Brillouin zone. The secular equations derived from the matrices of the pseudopotential Hamiltonian are solved at 7 symmetry points and along lines between the symmetry points and also at points on the reflection plane near the extrema of the conduction and the valence bands. The resulting band structure is consistent with galvanomagnetic experiments, and band parameters agree with one of the two sets presented by Efimova et al. on the basis of an analysis of their galvanomagnetic experiment.