First-principles calculations of the electronic structure, chemical bonding, and thermodynamic properties of USiO4

The density functional theory (DFT) + U method is adopted to study the electronic structure, magnetism, chemical bonding, and thermodynamic properties of USiO4. A bandgap of 3.1 eV is obtained by analyzing the band diagram of USiO4. The calculated structural parameters are consistent with the recent experimental results. The charge density and charge density differences are studied in order to analyze the chemical bonds in USiO4. The results indicate that interactions within USiO4 are mostly ionic and exhibit weak covalent character. In addition, phonon behavior is studied in detail. We predict phonon frequencies and assign and analyze the Raman-active and infrared-active modes at the Γ point. Furthermore, thermodynamic properties such as the internal energy ΔE, Helmholtz free energy ΔF, constant-volume specific heat CV, and entropy S are investigated in the region between 0 K and 1000 K. The results are expected to provide useful information for subsequent experiments on USiO4.