Electronic band structure of SnSe

The electronic bands of SnSe are calculated along all high symmetry lines of the Brillouin zone using the local empirical pseudopotential method. Spectralization of the involved large matrices is performed by means of a new approximate folding‐down method which locates the s‐states of valence bands much better than the Löwdin‐Brust perturbative technique. The parameters of the analytical form used to interpolate the pseudopotentials are roughly adjusted to obtain a band structure consistent with optical and photoelectric data. Satisfactory results for the general features are obtained, a better agreement requiring a more cautious tuning of pseudopotential values in the region of small wave vectors.