Electronic properties and elastic constants of wurtzite, zinc-blende and rocksalt AlN Original Research Article

Electronic properties and elastic constants of AlN in the wurtzite, zinc-blende and rocksalt structures are investigated using an ab initio pseudopotential method based on the density-functional theory with both the local-density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation functional. The numerically calculated results compare well with the existing experimental data. For elastic constants of rocksalt AlN our results are predictions.