Theoretical prediction of high pressure phase transition in ScC and YC: Ab initio calculations

Abstract

The structural stability of ScC and YC has been analyzed under hydrostatic compression employing the first-principles calculations using the plane-wave pseudopotential method. The comparison of theoretically calculated enthalpies of rocksalt type (B1), primitive orthorhombic (Pmmn), and CsCl type (B2) structures as a function of pressure suggests that the B1 structure transforms to Pmmn phase instead of transforming to B2 phase that predicted by Soni et al. [J. Phys. Chem. Solids 72, 810 (2011)]. The pressure for B1 to Pmmn transition predicted for ScC and YC are ∼80 GPa and ∼30 GPa, respectively. To further substantiate the outcomes of our static lattice calculations, we have performed lattice dynamic calculations also. Our lattice dynamic calculations correctly demonstrate that the B1 phase is dynamically stable structure at ambient condition. Further, for both the carbides, we find that the Pmmn structure becomes dynamically stable around the transition pressure whereas the B2 structure remains unstable, supporting the B1 to Pmmn phase transition predicted by our static lattice calculations.