Infrared reflectance, transmittance, and emittance spectra of MgO from first principles

By using density functional theory calculations we determined the influence of anharmonic effects on the infrared reflectance, transmittance, and emittance of MgO. The goal is to determine the limit of validity of a perturbative (multiphonon) approach. MgO is chosen as a test material because of the availability of different kinds of radiative properties measured experimentally. Nonanalytic terms of the three-phonon scattering coefficients are explicitly calculated and do not provide measurable effects. The agreement is overall very good to such an extent that, already at room temperature, one can clearly identify regions in which four-phonon scattering processes are dominant with respect to the three-phonon ones. The influence of isotopic disorder at cryogenic temperatures is also settled.