The electronic structure of the Na$_x$CoO$_2$ surface

The idea that surface effects may play an important role in suppressing $e_g$ Fermi surface pockets on Na$_x$CoO$_2$ $(0.333 le x le 0.75)$ has been frequently proposed to explain the discrepancy between LDA calculations (performed on the bulk compound) which find $e_g$ hole pockets present and ARPES experiments, which do not observe the hole pockets. Since ARPES is a surface sensitive technique it is important to investigate the effects that surface formation will have on the electronic structure of Na$_{1/3}$CoO$_2$ in order to more accurately compare theory and experiment. We have calculated the band structure and Fermi surface of cleaved Na$_{1/3}$CoO$_2$ and determined that the surface non-trivially affects the fermiology in comparison to the bulk. Additionally, we examine the likelihood of possible hydroxyl cotamination and surface termination. Our results show that a combination of surface formation and contamination effects could resolve the ongoing controversy between ARPES experiments and theory.

The origin of a$_{1g}$ and e$_g$ orderings in Na$_x$CoO$_2$

It has often been suggested that correlation effects suppress the small e_g Fermi surface pockets of NaxCoO_2 that are predicted by LDA, but absent in ARPES measurements. It appears that within the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) the ARPES can be reproduced only if the on-site energy of the eg complex is lower than that of the a1g complex at the one-electron level, prior to the addition of local correlation effects. Current estimates regarding the order of the two orbital complexes range from -200 meV to 315 meV in therms of the energy difference. In this work, we perform density functional theory calculations of this one-electron splitting Delta= epsilon_a1g-epsilon_e_g for the full two-layer compound, Na2xCo2O4, accounting for the effects of Na ordering, interplanar interactions and octahedral distortion. We find that epsilon a_1g-epsilon e_g is negative for all Na fillings and that this is primarily due to the strongly positive Coulomb field created by Na+ ions in the intercalant plane. This field disproportionately affects the a_1g orbital which protrudes farther upward from the Co plane than the e_g orbitals. We discuss also the secondary effects of octahedral compression and multi-orbital filling on the value of Delta as a function of Na content. Our results indicate that if the e_g pockets are indeed suppressed that can only be due to nonlocal correlation effects beyond the standard DMFT.