Calculated optical properties of heavy metals

The formalism for calculation of the optical properties of solids within the random phase approximation and the relativistic linear muffin-tin-orbital method is presented. The method is applied to the cubic 5 d metals Ta, W, Ir, Pt, and Au using the local density approximation. The band structures, the l j projected densities of states, the complex dielectric functions, the optical conductivities, and the electron energy-loss spectra are evaluated in the energy range from 0 to 30 eV. Good agreement with the experimental data is found