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The role of potassium orbitals in the metallic behavior of K3picene

Detailed electronic structure calculations of picene clusters doped by potassium modeling the crystalline K3picene structure show that while two electrons are completely transferred from potassium atoms to the LUMO of pristine picene, the third one remains closely attached to both material components. Multiconfigurational analysis is necessary to show that many structures of almost degenerate total energies compete to define the cluster ground state. Our results prove that the 4s orbital of potassium should be included in any interaction model describing the material. We propose a quarter filled two orbital model as the most simple model capable of describing the electronic structure of K-intercalated picene. Precise solutions obtained by a development of Lanczos method show low energy electronic excitations involving orbitals located at different positions. Consequently, metallic transport is possible in spite of the clear dominance of interaction over hopping.