How to analyse a density of states
Michael Y. Toriyama, Alex M. Ganose, Maxwell Dylla, Shashwat Anand, Junsoo Park, Madison K. Brod, Jason M. Munro, Kristin A. Persson, Anubhav Jain, G. Jeffrey Snyder
Abstract
The density of states of electrons is a simple, yet highly-informative, summary of the electronic structure of a material. Here, some remarkable features of the electronic structure that are perceptible from the density of states are concisely reviewed, notably the analytical E vs. k dispersion relation near the band edges, effective mass, Van Hove singularities, and the effective dimensionality of the electrons, all of which have a strong influence on physical properties of materials. We emphasize that appropriate parameters in electronic structure calculations are necessary to obtain even a sufficient-quality density of states exhibiting fine features of the electronic structure.