Band Structure Program
Density functional band theory methods have become very highly developed over the last 3 decades. Powerful
software packages now exist which give reasonably reliable pictures of ground state energies and fermi surfaces
for a wide variety of materials. A lot of "engineering" goes into these programs, and there is not time in
this course to present all of the details. However, I feel that you should be exposed to what can be done.
I will therefore ask you on the homework assignment to use a band theory package with a particularly
user-friendly interface, developed by Sergej Savrasov at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
This program will be available on the computers in the physics graduate student office (7th floor, Pupin)
or you can download it onto a windows computer (I have successfully downloaded it and run
it on a simple Dell laptop).


You can find the progam at http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/~mindlab    You can also find documentation there.
Click on "Mindlab Software" and then on "download" and follow the instructions. The serial number you need is
110189.
Note you will also need to download "LMTART", which you can find on the downloads page.

What you are getting is a research-level implementation of a band theory program, along with
a user-friendly interface. I find that for small calculations (systems with 10-20 electrons and not too stringent
accuracy requirements) it runs quickly on a simple laptop. for anything bigger, you will probably want
a better computer.