Density functional theory (DFT) computations within the local-density approximation and generalized gradient approximation in pure form and with dispersion correction (GGA+D) were carried out to investigate the structural, electronic, and optical properties of L-aspartic acid anhydrous crystals. The electronic (band structure and density of states) and optical absorption properties were used to interpret the light absorption measurements we have performed in L-aspartic acid anhydrous crystalline powder at room temperature. We show the important role of the layered spatial disposition of L-aspartic acid molecules in anhydrous L-aspartic crystals to explain the observed electronic and optical properties. There is good agreement between the GGA+D calculated and experimental lattice parameters, with ($\Delta${}a, $\Delta${}b, $\Delta${}c) deviations of (0.029,$-${}0.023,$-${}0.024) (units in \AA{}). Mulliken [J. Chem. Phys. 23, 1833 (1955)] and Hirshfeld [Theor. Chim. Acta 44, 129 (1977)] population analyses were also performed to assess the degree of charge polarization in the zwitterion state of the L-aspartic acid molecules in the DFT converged crystal. The lowest-energy optical absorption peaks related to transitions between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band involve O 2p valence states and C 1p and O 2p conduction states, with the carboxyl and COOH lateral chain group contributing significantly to the energy band gap. Among the calculated band gaps, the lowest GGA+D (4.49-eV) gap is smaller than the experimental estimate of 5.02 eV, as obtained by optical absorption. Such a wide-band-gap energy together with the small carrier effective masses estimated from band curvatures allows us to suggest that an L-aspartic acid anhydrous crystal can behave as a wide-gap semiconductor. A comparison of effective masses among directions parallel and perpendicular to the L-aspartic molecules layers reveals that charge transport must be favored in the former case. Finally, we also show that there is a strong optical anisotropy in the dielectric function of L-aspartic acid anhydrous crystals.

We present the structural, electronic, and optical properties of anhydrous crystals of DNA nucleobases (guanine, adenine, cytosine, and thymine) found after DFT (Density Functional Theory) calculations within the local density approximation, as well as experimental measurements of optical absorption for powders of these crystals. Guanine and cytosine (adenine and thymine) anhydrous crystals are predicted from the DFT simulations to be direct (indirect) band gap semiconductors, with values 2.68 eV and 3.30 eV (2.83 eV and 3.22 eV), respectively, while the experimentally estimated band gaps we have measured are 3.83 eV and 3.84 eV (3.89 eV and 4.07 eV), in the same order. The electronic effective masses we have obtained at band extremes show that, at low temperatures, these crystals behave like wide gap semiconductors for electrons moving along the nucleobases stacking direction, while the hole transport are somewhat limited. Lastly, the calculated electronic dielectric functions of DNA nucleobases crystals in the parallel and perpendicular directions to the stacking planes exhibit a high degree of anisotropy (except cytosine), in agreement with published experimental results.