A first principles study of phase stability, bonding, electronic and lattice dynamical properties of beryllium chalcogenides at high pressure

Abstract

The present paper reports a detailed and systematic theoretical study of structural, mechanical, electronic, vibrational and thermodynamical properties of three beryllium chalcogenides BeS, BeSe and BeTe in zinc blende, NiAs and rock salt phases by performing ab initio calculations based on density-functional theory. The calculated value of lattice constants and bulk modulus are compared with the available experimental and other theoretical data and found to agree reasonably well. These compounds are indirect wide band gap semiconductors with a partially ionic contribution in all considered three phases. The zinc blende phase of these chalcogenides is found stable at ambient condition and phase transition from zinc blende to NiAs structure is found to occur. The bulk modulus, its pressure derivative, anisotropic factor, Poission’s ratio, Young’s modulus for these are also calculated and discussed. The phonon dispersion curves of these beryllium chalcogenides in zinc blende phase depict their dynamical stability in this phase at ambient condition. We have also estimated the temperature variation of specific heat at constant volume, entropy and Debye temperature for these compounds in zinc blende phase. The variation of lattice-specific heat with temperature obeys the classical Dulong–Petit’s law at high temperature, while at low-temperature it obeys the Debye’s T3 law.