Consideration of relativistic effects in band structure calculations based on the empirical tight-binding method

The energy band structure of cadmium telluride and mercury telluride materials is investigated by means of the tight-binding (TB) method considering relativistic effects and the spin-orbit interaction. Taking into account relativistic effects in the method is rather simple though the size of the Hamilton matrix doubles. Such considerations are necessary for the interesting small-interstice semiconductors, and the experimental results are reflected correctly in the band structures. The transformation behaviour of the eigenvectors within the Brillouin zone gets more complicated, but is, nevertheless, theoretically controllable. If, however, the matrix elements of the Green operator are to be calculated, one has to use formula manipulation programmes in particular for non-diagonal elements. For defect calculations by the Koster-Slater theory of scattering it is necessary to know these matrix elements. Knowledge of the transformation behaviour of eigenfunctions saves frequent diagonalization of the Hamilton matrix and thus permits a numerical solution of the problem. Corresponding results for the sp3 basis are available