ELECTRON ENERGY BAND STRUCTURE AND ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF RHOMBOHEDRAL GRAPHITE

A simple extension of Haering's calculation of the energy band structure of rhombohedral graphite has been made to include the effect of interaction between next nearest neighboring planes. In addition to the two-dimensional type behavior, a dependence of energy on the component of the wave vector parallel to the c-axis was found. This condition causes a band overlap of approximately 0·02 eV. Thus, above approximately 150°K, the properties of rhombohedral graphite in the plane perpendicular to the c-axis are almost the same as those of two-dimensional graphite. At low temperatures, the behavior is that of a 'smeared' two-dimensional band structure. For example, the susceptibility anisotropy should be approximately -35 × 10-6 e.m.u./g at 300°K and approximately -91 × 10-6 e.m.u./g at 0°K. The density of electronic states for pure material is approximately 0·07 of that for the hexagonal structure. © 1969.