Structural, Vibrational, and Electronic Properties of 1D-TlInTe2 under High Pressure: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study

Abstract

Analogous to 2D layered transition-metal dichalcogenides, the TlSe family of quasi-one dimensional chain materials with the Zintl-type structure exhibits novel phenomena under high pressure. In the present work, we have systematically investigated the high-pressure behavior of TlInTe2 using Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transport measurements, in combination with first principles crystal structure prediction (CSP) based on evolutionary approach. We found that TlInTe2 undergoes a pressure-induced semiconductor-to-semimetal transition at 4 GPa, followed by a superconducting transition at 5.7 GPa (with Tc = 3.8 K). An unusual giant phonon mode (Ag) softening appears at ∼10-12 GPa as a result of the interaction of optical phonons with the conduction electrons. The high-pressure XRD and Raman spectroscopy studies reveal that there is no structural phase transitions observed up to the maximum pressure achieved (33.5 GPa), which is in agreement with our CSP calculations. In addition, our calculations predict two high-pressure phases above 35 GPa following the phase transition sequence as I4/mcm (B37) → Pbcm → Pm3̅m (B2). Electronic structure calculations suggest Lifshitz (L1 & L2-type) transitions near the superconducting transition pressure. Our findings on TlInTe2 open up a new avenue to study unexplored high-pressure novel phenomena in TlSe family induced by Lifshitz transition (electronic driven), giant phonon softening, and electron-phonon coupling.