Title: Pressure induced band inversion, electronic and structural phase transitions in InTe: A combined experimental and theoretical study
Abstract: We report high-pressure Raman scattering measurements on the tetragonal phase of InTe corroborated with the first-principles density functional theory and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements. Anomalous pressure-dependent linewidths of the ${A}_{1\mathrm{g}}$ and ${E}_{\mathrm{g}}$ phonon modes provide evidence of an isostructural electronic transition at $\ensuremath{\sim}3.6\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$. The first-principles theoretical analysis reveals that it is associated with a semiconductor-to-metal transition due to increased density of states near the Fermi level. Further, this pressure induced metallization acts as a precursor for structural phase transition to a face centered cubic phase ($Fm\overline{3}m$) at $\ensuremath{\sim}6.0\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$. Interestingly, theoretical results reveal a pressure induced band inversion at the $Z$ and $M$ points of the Brillouin zone corresponding to pressures $\ensuremath{\sim}1.0$ and $\ensuremath{\sim}1.4\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$, respectively. As the parity of bands undergoing inversions is the same, the topology of the electronic state remains unchanged, and hence InTe retains its trivial band topology $({\mathbb{Z}}_{2}=0)$. The pressure dependent behavior of the ${A}_{1\mathrm{g}}$ and ${E}_{\mathrm{g}}$ modes can be understood based on the results from the synchrotron x-ray diffraction, which shows anisotropic compressibility of the lattice in the $a$ and $c$ directions. Our Raman measurements up to $\ensuremath{\sim}19\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$ further confirms the pressure induced structural phase transition from a face-centered to primitive cubic ($Fm\overline{3}m$ to $Pm\overline{3}m$) at $P\ensuremath{\sim}15\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$.
Publication Year: 2018
Publication Date: 2018-04-27
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 37
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot