Ab initio calculations of excitons in GaN -: art. no. 035204

The optical absorption and excitonic properties of wurtzite GaN are investigated by means of an ab initio approach taking into account electron-hole correlations. This is done by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation, using the results of density functional theory calculations as a starting point. Our main focus is the calculation of the binding energies of bound excitons, as well as their dependence on structural parameters and details of the electronic structure.