subject: Band-structure examination by the LMTO method [print this page] The full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method is a specific implementation of density functional theory within the local density approximation (LDA). In this method there is no shape approximation to the crystal potential, unlike methods based on the atomic-spheres approximation (ASA) where the potential is assumed to be spherically symmetric around each atom. For mathematical convenience the crystal is divided up into regions inside muffin-tin spheres, where Schrdinger's equation is solved numerically, and an interstitial region. In all LMTO methods the wavefunctions in the interstitial region are Hankel functions
