First-principles study of structural phase transition, electronic, elastic and thermodynamic properties of C15-type Laves phase TiCr2 under pressure

Abstract

Phase transition of TiCr2 in C15 (MgCu2), C36 (MgNi2), C14 (MgZn2) structures have been studied by using the projector augmented wave method. It is found that C15-type is the most stable structure, which agrees with the results of Chen et al. At 0 K, the phase boundary of C15 to C36 is 207.79 GPa, and the phase transition from C36 to C14 is 265.61 GPa. Both the transition pressures decrease with increasing temperature. Phonon dispersion and elastic constants are calculated and found that C15-type TiCr2 is mechanically stable according to the elastic stability criteria and phonon dispersion analysis. Moreover, the pressure and temperature dependence of the specific heat, Debye temperature and thermal expansion coefficient are discussed, among them our calculated Debye temperature is consistent with the report of A. sari et al., however, it is far from the results of B. Mayer et al. and Chen et al.