Band Structure and Electronic Properties of Lithium Phosphide Li3P

Ab initio Hartree-Fock band structure calculations have been performed to study the electronic structure of Li3P in the hexagonal P6/mmm crystal structure. The total energy, band structure, density of states, and charge densities are computed. The band structure is very similar to that calculated for lithium nitride with a small indirect gap between Γ and K of 2 eV. However, the charge distribution in Li 3P is more anisotropic with a greater ionicity in the x-y plane compared to the c direction. This is also supported by a large calculated core level split of 6.5 eV of the Li ls core bands.