Ab initio calculations of structural and electronic properties of the compound Li3AlB2O6

The two equilibrium structures of the compound Li3AlB2O6 have been investigated via the minimization of the total energy within Local Spin Density Approximation (LSDA) based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT) in our work. The calculated lattice parameters are all in good agreement with their corresponding experimental values. The relative stability of the two structures are determined. We fine that the structure suggested by He et al. is more stable than that proposed by Abdullaev et al. at zero pressure conditions. The reasons for which the structure suggested by He et al. is more stable are also described. Then the electronic properties of the compound Li3AlB2O6 including the density of states and energy band structure are successfully obtained and compared for the two structures. We find that the properties of insulator decreases from the structure suggested by He et al. to the structure proposed by Abdullaev et al.