High-pressure structural phase transitions, electronic properties, and intermediate states of CaSe

Abstract

In this study, ab initio calculations have been carried out to understand the effect of extreme external pressure on the crystal structure of CaSe. The crystal structure of CaSe, a calcium chalcogen, is studied using density functional theory (DFT) with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) up to 250 GPa under high hydrostatic pressure. Structurally CaSe crystallizes in cubic NaCl-type (B1) structure (space group: [Formula: see text]) at ambient conditions. The results indicated that CaSe undergoes a structural phase transition from this cubic structure to another cubic CsCl-type (B2) structure (space group: [Formula: see text]) at high pressure. This transformation is based on two intermediate states with space group [Formula: see text] and C2/m. Additionally, the electronic band structures and density of states for the obtained B1 and B2 structures of CaSe have been calculated. According to these calculations, obtained band gap values are in good agreement with the values reported in the literature.