Structural stability and electronic structure of actinide and rare-earth based intermetallics under high pressure

Abstract

The rare-earth and actinide based intermetallics are endowed with exotic physical and chemical properties due to the presence of idiosyncratic f-electrons in these systems. These properties exhibit interesting changes under the action of various thermodynamic fields and hence continue to be a subject of extensive research. For instance, under pressure, the nature of f-electrons can be changed from localized to itinerant, leading to a variety of changes in their structural, physical and chemical properties. During the last one and half decade, we have carried out extensive research on the structural stability and phase transition behaviour of the aluminides and gallides of these f-electron based systems using a unique combination of Guinier diffractometer and diamond anvil cell. To bring out the correlations between the structural stability and phase transition behaviour with their electronic structure, we have also carried out electronic structure calculations as a function of reduced volume. In this talk, we have presented some of our studies on the AB2 type actinide and rare-earth based intermetallics, elaborated on the trends seen in the structural behaviour and correlated with their electronic structure.