PHY.K02UF Molecular and Solid State Physics

Tight binding

Tight binding is a method to calculate the electronic band structure of a crystal. It is similar to the method of Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO) used to construct molecular orbitals. Although this approximation neglects the electron-electron interactions, it often produces qualitatively correct results and is sometimes used as the starting point for more sophisticated approaches.

In tight binding, one simply guesses a wave fuction where a wavefunction for the unit cell $\psi_{\text{unit cell}}$ is repeated at every unit cell with a complex phase factor,

\[ \begin{equation} \psi_{\vec{k}}\left(\vec{r}\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}\sum\limits_{h,j,l}e^{i\left(h\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_1 + j\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_2 + l\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_3\right)} \psi_{\text{unit cell}}\left(\vec{r}-h\vec{a}_1-j\vec{a}_2-l\vec{a}_3\right). \end{equation} \]

Here $N$ is the number of unit cells in the crystal, $h$, $j$, and $l$ are integers that are used to label all the unit cells in the crystal, $\vec{k}$ is a wave vector in the first Brillouin zone, and $\vec{a}_1$, $\vec{a}_2$, and $\vec{a}_3$ are primitive lattice vectors in real space. The wave function for a unit cell $\psi_{\text{unit cell}}$ is constructed from the valence orbitals of all of the atoms in a primitive unit cell of the crystal.

\[ \begin{equation} \psi_{\text{unit cell}}\left(\vec{r}\right)= \sum\limits_{a} \sum\limits_{ao} c_{ao,a}\phi^{Z_a}_{ao}\left(\vec{r}-\vec{r}_a\right). \end{equation} \]

Where $a$ sums over the atoms in the basis and $ao$ sums over the atomic orbitals of each atom. For instance, for calcium carbonate CaCO3, the valence orbitals would be the 4s orbital for calcium, the 2s and 3 × 2p orbitals for carbon and the 2s and 3 × 2p orbitals for oxygen. In this case there would be 15 terms in the wavefunction for the unit cell.

To determine the coefficients of all of the atomic orbitals $c_{ao,a}$, the tight binding wave function is inserted into the Schrödinger equation. This results in a set of algebraic equations that can be solved for the atomic orbital coefficients and the energy $E$. There will be as many solutions at each $\vec{k}$ as there are atomic orbitals in the tight binding wave function.

Because of the translational symmetry of the crystal, the energy eigenfunctions must also be eigenfunctions of the translation operator. The complex prefactor ensures that the wavefunction is an eigenfunction of the translation operator $\hat{T}_{pqs}$.

\[ \begin{equation} \hat{T}_{pqs}\psi_{\vec{k}}\left(\vec{r}\right)=\psi_{\vec{k}}\left(\vec{r}+p\vec{a}_1+q\vec{a}_2+s\vec{a}_3\right)=e^{i\left(p\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_1 + q\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_2 + s\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_3\right)}\psi_{\vec{k}}\left(\vec{r}\right). \end{equation} \]

The operator $T_{pqs}$ translates the function by $p\vec{a}_1+q\vec{a}_2+s\vec{a}_3$ where $p$, $q$, and $s$ are integers.

There are five d-atomic orbitals that all have the same energy for an isolated atom, and seven f-atomic orbitals that all have the same energy for an isolated atom. When these are included in the tight binding model, the d-atomic orbitals produce 5 d-bands and the f-atomic orbitals produce seven f-bands. The transition metals are the part of the periodic table where the d-bands are filled, and the rare earth metals are the part of the periodic table where the f-bands are filled. It is common to refer to bands in a band structure calculation that are associated with the bands that are produced from atomic orbitals in a tight binding calculation, even if the band structure was calculated by another method.

The atomic orbitals arranged like the periodic table.

The energy of the tight binding wave function can be evaluated by substituting $\psi_{\vec{k}}$ into the time-independent Schrödinger equation,

\[ \begin{equation} \hat{H}\psi_{\vec{k}}=E\psi_{\vec{k}} . \end{equation} \]

Multiply the Schrödinger equation from the left by one of the valence orbitals $\phi_{n}^*\left(\vec{r}\right)$ and integrate over all space.

\[ \begin{equation} \langle\phi_{n}|\hat{H}|\psi_{\vec{k}}\rangle = E\langle\phi_{n}|\psi_{\vec{k}}\rangle. \end{equation} \]

In the tight binding wavefunction, the $h$, $j$, and $l$ indices sum over all of the unit cells in the crystal, so $\psi_{\vec{k}}$ is finite everywhere. However, the valence orbital $\phi_n$ goes to zero rapidly as the distance from the center of this orbital increases. On the left side of the equation above, the only significant terms are $\langle\phi_n|\hat{H}|\phi_n\rangle$ and the matrix elements involving $\phi_n$ and its nearest neighbor orbitals. On the right side of the equation, typically only the largest term is included.

\[ \begin{equation} c_n\langle\phi_{n}|\hat{H}|\phi_{n}\rangle + \sum\limits_{m=\text{nearest neighbors}}c_m\langle\phi_{n}|\hat{H}|\phi_{m}\rangle e^{i\left(h\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_1 + j\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_2 + l\vec{k}\cdot\vec{a}_3\right)} + \text{small terms} = Ec_n\langle\phi_{n}|\phi_{n}\rangle + \text{small terms} . \end{equation} \]

There is one equation like this for each of the valence orbitals $\phi_n$. These equations can be solved to determine the coefficients $c_i$ and energy $E$.


One-dimensional crystal with one atom in the basis


One-dimensional crystal with two atoms in the basis


Lithium (bcc)


Hexagonal - one atomic orbital


Graphene