Origin of the band dispersion in a metal phthalocyanine crystal

Abstract

Understanding the crystal structure and electronic states of the organic semiconductor is of fundamental importance for developing the materials for the organic electronics. However, the theoretical treatment of organic semiconductors remains challenging, as the semilocal density functional theory fails to describe the dispersion forces accurately. We use van der Waals inclusive density functionals to study the zinc phthalocyanine polymorphs. It is found that the structure and energetics are well described with the van der Waals density functional, and as a result, the electronic band structure is nicely reproduced. Furthermore, we reveal that the distance between the molecules and the molecule tilt angle are important factors that determine the electronic band dispersion.