Exploring high pressure structural transformations, electronic properties and superconducting properties of MH2 (M = Nb, Ta)

Abstract

The high-pressure structures and properties of MH2 (M = Nb, Ta) are explored through an ab initio evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction and first-principles calculations. It is found that NbH2 undergoes a phase transition from a cubic Fm3¯m structure with regular NbH8 cubes to an orthorhombic Pnma structure with fascinating distorted NbH9 tetrakaidecahedrons at 48.8 GPa, while the phase transition pressure of TaH2 from a hexagonal P63mc phase with slightly distorted TaH7 decahedron to an orthorhombic Pnma phase with attractive distorted TaH9 tetrakaidecahedrons is about 90.0 GPa. Besides, the calculated electronic band structure and density of states demonstrate that all of these structures are metallic. The Poisson’s ratio, electron localization function, and Bader charge analysis suggest that these phases possess dominant ionic bonding character with the effective charges transferring from the metal atom to H. From our electron–phonon calculations, the calculated superconducting critical temperature Tc of the Pnma-NbH2 is 6.903 K at 50 GPa. Finally, via the quasi-harmonic approximation method, the phase diagrams at pressure up to 300 GPa and temperature up to 1000 K of MH2 (M = Nb, Ta) are established, where the transition pressure of Fm3¯m-NbH2 → Pnma-NbH2 and P63mc-TaH2 → Pnma-TaH2 were found to decrease with increasing temperature.