High Pressure Study of Structural and Electronic Properties of PbSe

Abstract

High pressure structural phase transition and electronic properties have been investigated using the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) method with two exchange-correlation approximations, the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and local density approximation (LDA). The present study shows phase transitions from B1 to B27 and B27 to B2 at 6.24 GPa and 16.39 GPa, respectively. Lattice constant, bulk modulus, and energy gap of pressure-induced PbSe are found to be in good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental results. Variation of electronic band structure with pressure shows direct band gap along L point of the Brillouin zone.