Density of States Plots - Uses & Importance

[assed]

Hello.
I have been in contact with some papers that use DFT softwares for calculating properties of solids, nanoparticles, etc and a lot of them comes with colorfull plots of density of states. I know the density of states gives the number of electrons in the range of energy, but what I don't know is what is the importance of the plots they usually present in these papers. They don't do a very detailed analysis of these plots so I wonder what are they used for and why separate the contributions of each atom/orbital to the DOS.
Thanks.

 

[hokhani]

I know the density of states gives the number of electrons in the range of energy

Dos gives "the number of states" not "the number of electrons" in an energy range.

 

[assed]

Thanks. Already knew that, just expressed myself in a wrong way.
I will let the original post the way it was, since your reply is right below it.

 

[Useful nucleus]

DOS plots have tons and tons of "raw" information which can be useful for people working in different fields.

Examples:
1- Evaluating electron effective mass.
2- Evaluating carrier concentration.
3- Deducing wheather a neutral anion vacancy in a metal oxide leads to an F-center or polarons.
...
And the lest goes on.

 

[sarose]

we can also differentiate magnetic and non magnetic materials (except anti-ferromagnetic materials)

 

[sarose]

@ useful nucleus how do we get idea about number 3?

 

[Useful nucleus]

@ useful nucleus how do we get idea about number 3?

One can first look at the DOS plot to determine the range of the defect-induced state, then by plotting the corresponding charge density in space, it is possible to see the site of electron localization. But I think it is not possibly to fully decide this by the DOS plot alone.