The structural and elastic properties of orthorhombic black phosphorus have been investigated using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. The structural parameters have been calculated using the local density approximation (LDA), the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), and with several dispersion corrections to include van der Waals interactions.It is found that the dispersion corrections improve the lattice parameters over LDA and GGA in comparison with experimental results. The calculations reproduce well the experimental trends under pressure and show that van der Waals interactions are most important for the crystallographic b-axis, in the sense that they have the largest effect on the bonding between the phosphorus layers.The elastic constants are calculated and are found to be in good agreement with experimental values. The calculated C 22 elastic constant is significantly larger than the C 11 and C 33 parameters, implying that black phosphorus is stiffer against strain along the a-axis than along the b-and

First principles calculations were carried out to study the phase stability and thermoelectric properties of the naturally occurring marcasite phase of FeS 2 at ambient condition as well as under pressure. Two distinct density functional approaches has been used to investigate the above mentioned properties. The plane wave pseudopotential approach was used to study the phase stability and structural, elastic, and vibrational properties. The full potential linear augment plane wave method has been used to study the electronic structure and thermoelectric properties. From the total energy calculations, it is clearly seen that marcasite FeS 2 is stable at ambient conditions, and it undergoes a first order phase transition to pyrite FeS 2 at around 3.7 GPa with a volume collapse of about 3%. The calculated ground state properties such as lattice parameters, bond lengths and bulk modulus of marcasite FeS 2 agree quite well with the experiment. Apart from the above studies, phonon dispersion curves unambiguously indicate that marcasite phase is stable under ambient conditions. Further, we do not observe any phonon softening across the marcasite to pyrite transition and the possible reason driving the transition is also analyzed in the present study, which has not been attempted earlier. In addition, we have also calculated the electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of the both marcasite and pyrite FeS 2 . We find a high thermopower for both the phases, especially with p-type doping, which enables us to predict that FeS 2 might find promising applications as good thermoelectric materials.

In the present work, we report a detailed density functional theory calculation on polymorphic InVO 4 phases by means of projector augmented wave method. The computed first-order structural phase transformation from orthorhombic (Cmcm) to monoclinic (P2/c) structure is found to occur around 5.6 GPa along with a large volume collapse of 16.6%, which is consistent with previously reported experimental data. This transformation also leads to an increase in the coordination number of vanadium atom from 4 to 6. The computed equilibrium and high pressure structural properties of both InVO 4 phases, including unit cell parameters, equation of state, and bulk moduli, are in good agreement with the available experimental data. In addition, compressibility is found to be highly anisotropic and the b-axis being more compressible than the other for both the structures. Electronic band structures for both the phases were calculated, and the band gap for orthorhombic and monoclinic InVO 4 are found to be 4.02 and 1.67 eV, respectively, within the Tran-Blaha Modified Becke-Johnson potential as implemented in linearized augmented planewave method. We further examined the optical properties such as dielectric function, refractive index, and absorption spectra for both the structures. From the implications of these results, it can be proposed that the high pressure InVO 4 phase can be more useful than orthorhombic phase for photo catalytic applications.

The effect of pressure on the structural and vibrational properties of the layered molecular crystal 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethelene (FOX-7) are explored by first principles calculations. We observe significant changes in the calculated structural properties with different corrections for treating van der Waals interactions to Density Functional Theory (DFT), as compared with standard DFT functionals. In particular, the calculated ground state lattice parameters, volume and bulk modulus obtained with Grimme's scheme are found to agree well with experiments. The calculated vibrational frequencies demonstrates the dependence of the intra and inter-molecular interactions in FOX-7 under pressure. In addition, we also found a significant increment in the N-H...O hydrogen bond strength under compression. This is explained by the change in bond lengths between nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atoms, as well as calculated IR spectra under pressure. Finally, the computed band gap is about 2.3 eV with GGA, and is enhanced to 5.1 eV with the GW approximation, which reveals the importance of performing quasiparticle calculations in high energy density materials.

We report a detailed theoretical study of the structural, vibrational, and optical properties of solid nitromethane using first principles density functional calculations. The ground state properties were calculated using a plane wave pseudopotential code with either the local density approximation (LDA), the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), or with a correction to include van der Waals interactions. Our calculated equilibrium lattice parameters and volume using a dispersion correction are found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. Also, our calculations reproduce the experimental trends in the structural properties at high pressure. It was found to be a discontinuity in the bond length, bond angles and also a weaking of hydrogen bond strength in the pressure range from 10 to 12 GPa, picturing the structural transition from phase I to Phase II. Moreover, we predict the elastic constants of solid nitromethane and found that the corresponding bulk modulus is in good agreement with experiments. The calculated elastic constants are showing an order of C11> C22 > C33, indicating that the material is more compressible along the c-axis. We also calculated the zone center vibrational frequencies and discuss the internal and external modes of this material under pressure. From this, we found the softing of lattice modes around 8 to 12 GPa. We have also attempt the quasiparticle band structure of solid nitromethane with the G0W0 approximation and found that nitromethane is an indirect band gap insulator with a value of the band gap of about 7.8 eV with G0W0 approximation. Finally, the optical properties of this material, namely the absorptive and dispersive part of the dielectric function, and the refractive index and absorption spectra are calculated and the contribution of different transition peaks of the absorption spectra are analyzed. The static dielectric constant and refractive indices along the three inequivalent crystallographic directions indicate that this material has a considerable optical anisotropy.

We have performed ab initio calculations for a series of energetic solids to explore their structural and electronic properties. To evaluate the ground state volume of these molecular solids, different dispersion correction methods were accounted in DFT, namely the TkatchenkoScheffler method (with and without self-consistent screening), Grimme's methods (D2, D3(BJ)) and the vdW-DF method. Our results reveals that dispersion correction methods are essential in understanding these complex structures with van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding. The calculated ground state volumes and bulk moduli show that the performance of each method is not unique, and therefore a careful examination is mandatory for interpreting theoretical predictions. This work also emphasizes the importance of quasiparticle calculations in predicting the band gap, which is obtained here with the GW approximation. We find that the obtained band gaps are ranging from 4 to 7 eV for the different compounds, indicating their insulating nature. In addition, we show the essential role of quasiparticle band structure calculations to correlate the gap with the energetic properties.

In this letter, we report the structural, elastic, and quasiparticle band structure of cynauric triazide. The structural properties using a dispersion corrected method to treat van der Waals (vdW) forces offers a significant improvement in the description of the ground state properties. The predicted bulk modulus from the equation of state and the elastic constants are consistent and the magnitude lies in the order of secondary explosives. Then, the G 0 W 0 approximation is used to study the band structure and an indirect band gap of 6.33 eV is obtained. Finally, we have calculated the optical and detonation characteristics at ambient pressure.2

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