Optical properties of the antiperovskite superconductor MgCNi3

The optical properties of the antiperovskite superconductor MgCNi3 have been calculated using the full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave method within the generalized gradient approximation scheme for the exchange-correlation potential. In order to fully elucidate the optical properties of MgCNi3, the dielectric function *e(*w), the reflectivity R(*w), the optical absorption coefficient I(*w), the optical conductivity *s(*w), the energy-loss function L(*w), the refractive index n(*w) as well as the extinction coefficient k(*w) were calculated. The prominent features in the spectra of the optical parameters are discussed.