Optical Properties of β-Si3N4 Studied from First-Principles Method

Abstract

A detailed theoretical study of the optical properties of β-Si3N4 has been carried out by means of first-principles calculations using the plane-wave pseudo-potential method with generalized gradient approximation for the exchange and correlation functional. The calculated maximum absorption coefficient is 312000, which is in good agreement with the other calculated result. β-Si3N4 can be used as a photo-electronic material because its absorption curve has an abrupt limit at low energy region. The light beam with the frequency of 7eV～15eV can easily traverse the β-Si3N4 crystal. For the dielectric function, the strongest peaks are located at 6.5 and 9.0eV for the real and imaginary parts, respectively. Moreover, the calculated static dielectric constant is 3.21. Actually speaking, our calculated results should be testified by experiments in the near future.