Ab-initio investigation of the covalent bond energies in the metallic covalent superconductor MgB2 and in AlB2

The contributions of the covalent bond energies of various atom pairs to the cohesive energy of MgB2 and AlB2 are analysed with a variant of our recently developed energy-partitioning scheme for the density-functional total energy. The covalent bond energies are strongest for the intralayer B-B pairs. In contrast to the general belief, there is also a considerable covalent bonding between the layers, mediated by the metal atom. The bond energies between the various atom pairs are analysed in terms of orbital- and energy-resolved contributions.