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Properties of Wannier Functions

This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 1958 Proc. Phys. Soc. 72 301 (http://iopscience.iop.org/0370-1328/72/2/426) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more

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Research Notes

301

peak and then in both peaks. Thirty-four counts totalling 120000 particles were made at equal intervals of 2 minutes, readjusting the bias between successive

The

01

particle spectrum of Th(C+ C') taken with a channel width of 0.5 volt. The lower peak corresponds to the 6.2 M e V LY. group from T h C and the other to the 8.9 kev 01 group from ThC'.

counts so that the effect of decay was averaged out. The branching ratio was found to be . / ( a + /3) = 0.359 t 0.002 which is in agreement with the recent value of Senftle et al. (1956).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to express our appreciation for the guidance and encouragement of Professor H. 0. W. Richardson. We are indebted to Dr. D. K. Butt for the loan of the crystal and to Bedford College for financial support during the course of this work.

REFERENCES
FRANZEN, W., PEELLE, R. W., and SHERR, R., 1950, Phys. Rea., 79, 742. KOVARICK, A. F., and ADAMS, N. I , 1938, Phys. Rev., 54,420. MARSDEN, E., and BARRATT, T., 1911, Proc. Phys. Soc., 24,SO. MEITNER, L., and FREITAG, K., 1926, 2. Physik, 37, 481. SENFTLE, F. E., FARLEY, T. A., and LAZAR, N., 1956, Phys. Rev., 104,1629.

Properties of Wannier Functions

BY W. K0HN-t

AND

S. MICHAELSON

Imperial College of Science and Technology, London Communicated by H . rones; M S . received 3rd June 1958

H E Wannier function (Wannier 1937) a ( r ) corresponding to a Simple energy band is defined as follows. Let +k(r)be normalized Bloch waves corresponding to this band. Then

a ( r ) = Q-lI2\, dk+,(r)

...

t Senior Post Doctoral Fellow of the United States National Science Foundation, on leave of absence from Camegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

302

Research Notes

where ! 2 is the volume of the fundamental Brillouin zone. Since the phase of C& is not defined, the function a ( r ) is not uniquely determined by (1). I t appears to be generally believed that Wannier functions, while somewhat localized, fall off slowly with distance, like r-l. This note is to report on some results which bear on this question. We have studied in detail the one-dimensional Bloch problem. I t was assumed that the potential has a centre of symmetry and that the band in question does not touch another band. I n this case it could be shown that the phases of the Bloch waves can be so chosen that + k ( ~ )may be analytically continued into the complex k-plane and, considered as a function of the complex variable k = k, + ik,, has the following properties : (i) it is a periodic function of k,, with period 27r/b, where b is the period of the potential, and (ii) it is an analytic function in a strip enclosing the real axis defined by [ k z l < k o , where KO is a positive number. From these properties and the quasi-periodicity in x, it follows that d k ( x ) can be written as a Fourier series

where the A,,(x) satisfy the following relations : A,,b+b)=A,,-l(x), and

. . . . . . (3)

...... (4) IA,L(x>l<M(x)exP ( - Inlkob) where M ( x ) is some non-negative bounded function of x. Use of (2) and (3) in the equation (1) defining the Wannier function gives
U(X

+ mb)= (&)l d k XnA , , ( x+ mb)exp (inkb)

. . . . . . (5)

=A,(x+mb)=A-&). Therefore, by (4),we have the estimate

. . . . . . (6) I.(.+mb)l<M(x)exp ( - Imlkob), showing that this Wannier function decreases exponentially. The magnitude of the largest possible ko for which ( 6 ) holds can be determined by a simple procedure. Loosely speaking it is the larger the more separated the band in question is from its neighbours. A mathematically rigorous discussion of three-dimensional Wannier functions is very much more complex, but there can be little doubt that they also fall off exponentially. Another simple property, which holds in any number of dimensions, might be mentioned. If the potential has a centre of inversion, there exists for each simple band one and only one Wannier function which is real and symmetric (or antisymmetric) under inversion. A more detailed account will be published elsewhere. One of us (W. K.) wishes to express his appreciation to the Imperial College of Science and Technology and in particular to Professor H. Jones for the hospitality which has been extended to him.
REFERENCE
WANNIER, G., 1937, Phys. Rev., 52, 191.