Refined Geometry and Frozen Phonons in KNbO3

Abstract

In order to arrive at ultimately accurate results available with the LMTO method in the local density approximation, the stability of full-potential LMTO predictions for off-center displacements in KNbO3, as depending on the choice of basis and expansion cutoffs, has been thoroughly investigated. With the calculation setup thus optimized, supercell frozen phonon calculations aimed at the study of the chain-structure instability over the Brillouin zone have been done, and the long-wavelength limit of the LO phonon is discussed.