Hydrostatic pressure response of semiconducting GaSb applying a semi-empirical approach

Abstract

In addition to experimental investigations, semi-empirical approaches prove valuable for replicating experimental results and predicting material behavior under high-pressure conditions. This study investigates the variation of unit cell volume in cubic zinc blende Gallium antimonide (GaSb) up to the phase transition pressure, relying solely on structural parameters from literature measurements at ambient conditions. The research extends to inspect the impact of high pressure on various properties, including mass density, bulk modulus, bulk sound wave velocity, microhardness, first-order pressure derivative of the isothermal bulk modulus, Grüneisen parameter, and Debye temperature for the GaSb compound. The bulk modulus and microhardness show nearly linear increases with pressure, while sound wave velocity and Debye temperature exhibit nonlinear variations. The first-order pressure derivative of the bulk modulus and Grüneisen parameter gradually decreased in the material under study. Similar trends under pressure are found in literature for materials with different crystallographic structures. Additionally, the study predicts and analyzes extra physical parameters of GaSb, comparing them with existing literature data.