Journalof Low TemperaturePhysics, Vol. 75, Nos. 1/2, 1989 Calculation of Band Structure and Superconductivity in the Simple Cubic Phase of Phosphorus M. Rajagopalan*, M. Alouani, and N. E. Christensen Max-Planck-Institut fiir Festkiirperforschung, Stuttgart, Federal Republic o f Germany (Received August 9, 1988) We report a calculation of the band structure and superconductivity of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase under pressure. The effect of pressure on the band structure is obtained by means of the linear muffin-tin orbital method. The superconducting transition temperature (To) is calculated using the AllenDynes formula. It is found that the value of Tc increases continuously with pressure from 110 kbar up to 210 kbar and then decreases. The change in the slope of T~ is associated with the appearance of a new piece of Fermi surface. The calculated values of T¢ are compared with the available experimental data. 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N Black phosphorus is the most stable form among the many allotropic modifications of phosphorus under normal condition. It is a layered, narrowgap semiconductor and crystallizes with an orthorhombic structure. Phosphorus shows an interesting sequence of structural transformations from orthorhombic to rhombohedral and then to a simple cubic phase with increasing applied pressure. 1-3 Several band structure calculations 4-5 are reported in the literature for the orthorhombic semiconducting phase. One calculation 6 exists in which the total energies are calculated for the different structures as a function of atomic volume. The authors have calculated the transition pressure between the rhombohedral and simple cubic phase. It was found to be about 100 kbar, which is in close agreement with the observed value 3 of about 110 kbar. On the experimental side, there are a number of studies of the electronic properties of black phosphorus in the orthorhombic phase. Quantities measured so far include the electrical anisotropic conductivity, the Hall coefficient, cyclotron resonance, 7-1° ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS), X - r a y photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), 11-12angle resolved UPS, 13 *Permanent address: Department of Physics, A n n a University, Madras 600025, India. 1 0022-2291/89/0400-0001506.00/0© 1989PlenumPublishingCorporation 2 M. Rajagopalan, M. Alouani, and N. E. Christensen core-exciton induced resonant photoemission, 14reflectance in the soft X-ray region, 1°and phonon dispersion by inelastic neutron scattering. 15In addition to the above mentioned properties, the superconducting transition temperature Tc is also measured for phosphorus under pressure by Wittig et al. 16 and Kawamura et al. 1~, but the two results disagree. Wittig et al. showed from their measurement that Tc exhibits two distinct maxima at about 120 kbar and 230 kbar separated by a minimum at about 170 kbar. After 230 kbar Tc begins to decrease. The first maximum occurs at a pressure where the structural transition takes place from rhombohedral to the simple cubic phase. Kawamura et al. showed from their measurement that T~ increases continuously with pressure in the simple cubic phase. The present work is concerned with the calculation of T~ as a function of pressure in the simple cubic phase. It is motivated by the ambiguity in the two experimental investigations and intends to give a physical explanation for the variation of T~ with pressure. The parameters needed in the calculation of T¢ are derived from the theoretical band structures. The band structure calculations are performed by the self consistent linear muffin-tin orbital method (LMTO)) 8 Superconducting transition temperatures are calculated using the Allen-Dynes 19 formula. The organization of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, the details of band structure calculations are given. Section 3 deals with the calculation of Tc and the discussion of the results. The last section contains the conclusions. 2. EQUATION OF STATE AND BAND STRUCTURE OF SIMPLE CUBIC PHOSPHORUS The energy bands of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase are calculated by means of the LMTO method within the atomic sphere approximation (ASA). The calculations include the relativistic mass-velocity and Darwin corrections but neglect the spin-orbit coupling and may be referred to as scalar relativistic. An "empty" sphere is added in the unit cell to have a better description of the charge density since the simple cubic structure is a loosely packed structure. The calculations are thus performed in the CsCI structure with two atoms in the unit cell, one real atom, and the empty sphere. To find the equilibrium lattice constant in the simple cubic phase, the total energies are computed by varying the cell parameter (lattice constant) from 2.76 A to 2.26 A. The Birch equation of state fitted to the total energies for the valence electrons is shown in Fig. 1. The total energy at the equilibrium lattice parameter (2.43 A) obtained in the present work is -2.65 Ryd/electron which is in good agreement with the value of -2.642 Ryd/electron obtained by the pseudopotential calculation. 6 The pressure and the bulk modulus are obtained from the derivatives of the 3 The Simple Cubic Phase of Phosphorus -13-51 I I i I 2.4 I 2.5 I 2.6 I 52 ~ 53 e'- 54 • O O i-., 55 56 2.3 I 2? 2.8 Cell parameter (•) Fig. 1. Calculated total energy as a function of cell parameter of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase. The arrow indicates the experimental value of the cell parameter (2.393 •) of the simple cubic phase (SC) just after the transition from the rhombohedral phase. I I I I 200 I 400 I 600 14 A E ...,a 12- 0 > 10C 8 0 Pressure (kbar) Fig. 2. Calculated volume versus pressure (P) of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase. The experimental data of Shirotani et al. 2 are indicated by (O--O). 4 M. Rajagopalan, M. Aiouani, and N. E. Christensen fitted total energies, and, in Fig. 2, we compare the theoretical and experimental pressure-volume relation in the simple cubic phase. We find a good agreement between the calculated and the experimental 2 pressures. The calculated value of the bulk modulus (B) is 1084 kbar, whereas the experimental value is 955 kbar 3 at V~ Vo=0.75, where Vo is the experimental volume at ambient pressure in the orthorhombic phase. The values of the calculated pressure and bulk modulus are given in Table I. The energy bands are computed for different lattice parameters from 2.393/~ to 2.245 ~. The energy bands near the Fermi level along the high-symmetry directions are given for three volumes ( V/Vo = 0.715, 0.686, and 0.68) in Fig. 3. From the figure it can be seen that the band at the symmetry point R which is mainly s-like is moving up and the d-like band at M drops down with respect to the Fermi level E~. This drop below the Fermi level, which changes the topology of the Fermi surface, is achieved for V/ Vo- 0.686, which corresponds to a pressure greater than 210 kbar. To examine the appearance of the new branch, we construct the Fermi surface cross-sections in the unfolded irreducible Brillouin zone (IBZ) as a function of volume; they are given in Fig. 4 for the same volumes as that of the band structures in Fig. 3. The size of the hole pocket around R decreases and an electron pocket appears around the point M. The total and l partial state densities are calculated by means of the tetrahedron method 2° using 1220 points in IBZ. This large number of k points was found to be necessary for the convergence of the density of states at EF. The total density of states N(EF) and the partial density of states (DOS) evaluated TABLE I Cell Parameter, V~ Vo, and Calculated Pressure and Bulk Modulus of Phosphorus in the Simple Cubic Phase Cell parameter (A ) V~ Vo Pressure (kbar) Bulk modulus (kbar) 2.393 2.382 2.374 2.371 2.364 2.355 2.350 2.342 2.331 2.326 2.310 2.288 2.267 2.245 0.725 0.715 0.708 0.705 0.699 0.691 0.686 0.680 0.671 0.666 0.652 0.634 0.616 0.599 110.7 132.8 149.4 156.6 174.1 194.8 208.4 228.6 256.0 270.6 317.4 407.0 488.4 579.4 1372.8 1420.0 1452.4 1463.3 1496.4 1535.7 1546.2 1598.8 1645.5 1669.1 1696.6 1746.2 1847.1 1950.7 The Simple Cubic Phase o f Phosphorus 5 o.6 :iI......... ",L::I 0.3 - " ', "........."~-. ." ..." .":{ /'%"'.. i ...... EF [ .' • - ." I"."% -=,,.o.3 • -iiiiiiii % .: • (I) ,r- '.. - ".,.~... " tu -O.6 : V/Vo:= 0.715 -0.9 / L -1.2 ....'Y ""...,..... r 0.6 M R •. '... • r =; ;. • X ". • .; • '. ". '." ." . ""-- 0.3 . . ". '. " . '~ u..I 0.0 EF ' '.". V/Vo--0.686 ' .,... ". ".. i. "-. R "°3r0.6 . - . '. _ 0.3 " Fig. 3. Calculated band structure of simple cubic p h o s p h o r u s along some high symmetry directions for several value o f V/Vo. (a) V/Vo=0.715; (b) V/Vo=0.686; (c) V / V o = 0.680 (for (b) and (c), only the bands near the Fermi level are shown). Vo is the experimental volume at ambient pressure in the orthorhombic phase. ''~ 0.0 . ". '.., I. ':-. .". WVo=Oe8: ';. ".."... ".. '.. -0.3f. r ... "- I • ... c~ t= "'~. ": = X ",..... .. • ~, '. M R M EF 6 M. Rajagopalan, M. Alouani, and N. E. Christensen V/Vo= 0.715 F R v/v o = 0.686 r" i2 x v / v o = 0.68 I- R R Fig. 4. Calculated Fermi surface contours of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase at V/Vo= 0.715, 0.686, and 0.680 in the unfolded irreducible Brillouin zone. (The numbers give the band indices.) The Simple Cubic Phase of Phosphorus 7 TABLE II Total and Partial Density of States at the Fermi Level and Number of Electrons of Phosphorus in the Simple Cubic Phase for Different Values of V~ Vo DOS ((states/Ry)/atom) NOS (electrons/atom) V~ Vo N(EF) ((states/Ry)/atom) s p d s p d 0.725 0.715 0.708 0.705 0.699 0.691 0.686 0.680 0.671 0.666 0.652 0.634 0.616 0.599 4.073 4.015 3.976 3.959 3.921 3.883 3.870 3.991 4.037 4.048 4.090 4.111 4.135 4.157 0.520 0.508 0.499 0.495 0.486 0.482 0.480 0.473 0.462 0.450 0.435 0.402 0.383 0.358 2.568 2.520 2.488 2.474 2.443 2.408 2.387 2.376 2.362 2.348 2.321 2.302 2.284 2.252 0.985 0.987 0.989 0.990 0.992 0.994 1.003 1.142 1.213 1.251 1.334 1.407 1.467 1.546 1.864 1.858 1.854 1.852 1.848 1.843 1.840 1.837 1.832 1.829 1.823 1.815 1.806 1.800 2.612 2.612 2.612 2.612 2.613 2.613 2.613 2.612 2.612 2.610 2.608 2.605 2.601 2.596 0.524 0.530 0.534 0.536 0.540 0.544 0.547 0.551 0.557 0.560 0.566 0.580 0.592 0.604 at E F are given a l o n g with the n u m b e r o f electrons ( N O S ) in T a b l e II. The total a n d t h e p a r t i a l d e n s i t y o f states at Ev are u s e d later in the c a l c u l a t i o n o f To. 3. C A L C U L A T I O N O F S U P E R C O N D U C T I N G TRANSITION TEMPERATURE The s u p e r c o n d u c t i n g t r a n s i t i o n t e m p e r a t u r e is c a l c u l a t e d using the A l l e n - D y n e s 19 f o r m u l a T=(l~exp[A-I'04(l+A) ] -g*(1 +0.62A)J (1) w h e r e (w) is the average p h o n o n frequency, A the e l e e t r o n - p h o n o n c o u p l i n g constant, a n d / z * is the e l e c t r o n - e l e c t r o n i n t e r a c t i o n constant. M c M i l l a n 21 h a d s h o w n t h a t A can b e written as A= N ( E F ) ( I 2) M{w2 } (2) w h e r e M is the a t o m i c mass, (w z) an a v e r a g e s q u a r e d p h o n o n f r e q u e n c y , a n d ( I z) the s q u a r e o f t h e e l e c t r o n - p h o n o n m a t r i x e l e m e n t a v e r a g e d o v e r t h e F e r m i surface. G a s p a r i a n d G y o r f f y = h a v e s h o w n t h a t ( I z) can b e e x p r e s s e d , w i t h i n the rigid muffin-tin a p p r o x i m a t i o n ( R M T A ) , in t e r m s o f 8 M. Rajagopalan, M. Alouani, and N. E. Christensen the scattering phase shifts. However, in the atomic sphere approximation, the usual phase shift notation becomes meaningless and (12 ) can be written as (in atomic Rydberg units) 23 ( l + 1) Nt(Ep)Nt+I(EF) (12) = 2 ~ (21+ 1)(21+3) M'21~-a N ( E F ) N ( E ~ ) (3) where Mr,t+1 is the electron-phonon matrix element which can be expressed in terms of the logarithmic derivates d In ~bt[ D~- d l n r Ir=s (4) evaluated at the sphere boundary23: M~,t+l = -6,6t÷l[(Dt(Ee) - l)(Dt+~(EF) + l + 2) + (Ep - V ( S ) ) S 2] (5) where V(S) is the one electron potential and tkt the sphere boundary amplitude of the l partial wave function evaluated at EF. Nl in Eq. (3) is the partial density of states function for the angular momentum quantum number/. The parameters that are entering into the calculation of M~,~+~are taken from the band structure results. The contributions to the matrix elements Msp and Mpd from the empty site is found to be small when compared to those from the phosphorus site. The average of the square of the phonon frequency (w 2) to be used in Eq. (2) is calculated using the Debye temperature 0o. Following the work of Papaconstantopoulos eta/., 24 (co2) is set equal to 0.5 0 2. Moruzzi et al. 25 has derived a simple relation to calculate the Debye temperature from the electronic structure which is / Soa~ '/2 Oo = 41.03 ~"~--) . . . . (6) where B is the bulk modulus evaluated at the equilibrium Wigner-Seitz sphere radius So and M is the atomic mass. They have used the above relation to calculate 0o for 14 nonmagnetic metals and found good agreement with experimental values. This relation was used in the present work to calculate 0o which is found to be 413 K.* The electron-electron interaction constant /x* is obtained from the empirical relation given by Bennemann and Garland 26 ~* - 0.26N(EF) 1+ N ( E F ) (7) *Since no experimental data are available for the variation of the Debye temperature with pressure, relation (6), which is valid only at the equilibrium lattice constant, is used to calculate the Debye temperature. The variation of the phonon spectrum under pressure is not studied in the present work. The Simple Cubic Phase of Phosphorus I I I 9 I I" As" 10 o 8 x," o 6 ~ i I" -,// :o - • oO, ; O k--- t, •x 4 • I A I I 50 I I I 100 150 200 250 Pressure (kbar) Fig. 5. Calculated superconducting transition temperature Tc versus theoretical pressure (P) of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase. The experimental data of K a w a m u r a et aL 17 are indicated by ( A - - A ) and those of Wittig et al) 6 are indicated by ( A A O 0 x[S]). TABLE III Electron-Phonon Matrix Element (IZ), Electron-Phonon Coupling Constant h, and Tc for different volumes o f V~ Vo V~ Vo (12 ) ((eV/A) 2) ;t T~(K) 0.725 0.715 0.708 0.705 0.699 0.691 0.686 0.680 0.671 0.666 0.652 0.634 0.616 0.599 22.659 23.627 24.312 24.603 25.293 26.107 26.457 25.245 24.934 24.604 24.260 23.751 23.329 23.012 0.598 0.614 0.626 0.631 0.642 0.656 0.663 0.653 0.652 0.645 0.640 0.632 0.624 0.619 6.86 7.45 7.86 8.03 8.44 8.93 9.21 8.82 8.81 8.55 8.35 8.08 7.82 7.63 10 M. Rajagopalan, M. Aiouani, and N. E. Christensen The superconducting transition temperature is calculated as a function of pressure and is given in Fig. 5. Table I I I contains the values of Tc along with the other parameters that enter into the expressions to calculate To. It is seen both from Fig. 5 and Table I I I that the value of Tc increases with increase in pressure up to about 210 kbar and then begins to decrease. There is a continuous s - t o - d electron transfer under pressure which is responsible for the increase of Tc with pressure up to 210 kbar. The experimental curve of Wittig e t al. 16 shows to distinct maxima at about 120 kbar and 230 kbar, separated by a minimum at about 170 kbar. They attributed the first m a x i m u m to p h o n o n - m o d e softening in connection with the structural transition from rhombohedral to simple cubic phase. 16 They also suggested that there are covalent bonds in the simple cubic phosphorus just above the structural transition. With increasing pressure the covalent bond character diminishes and phosphorus becomes a simple metal. However, the decrease in the value of T~ in the experimental work of Wittig e t al. in the pressure range from 120 kbar to 170 kbar may be due to the presence of mixed phases. The experimental curve a K a w a m u r a e t al. 17 shows that Tc increases continuously with pressure in the simple cubic phase. The decrease of T¢ above 210 kbar is due to the fact that there is sudden increase in the total density of states at the Fermi level. This can be understood as follows: Fig. 6 shows the decomposition of the matrix element 25 --" 2O 5~ I--I v ~ o - - __i~._.4~.. o_ . . . . • 100 i ( :r2pd ) o- - o - - - i i 150 200 P r e s s u r e (k bclr) .... -o--.o n 250 Fig. 6. The Fermi surface average of the electron-phonon interaction (I 2) and the individual contributions to (12) from the s, p and p, d scattering processes as a function of pressure. The Simple Cubic Phase of Phosphorus 11 (12) into (I,,p) 2 and (Ip,2 d). Obviously, (I 2~.p) is responsible for the change in the value of To. From our calculations we find that M]pN~(Ev)Np(EF) is continuously increasing under pressure. For pressures exceeding 210 kbar, a new piece of Fermi surface appears around M. These states are predominantly of d-character and cause the d partial density of states and the total density of states at the Fermi level to increase. Since N,(Ev) and Np(EF) are varying smoothly with pressure, it therefore follows from Eq. (3) that (I~.p) 2 decreases for pressures above 210 kbar. If the variation of an external parameter (such as here, with pressure) causes changes in the Fermi surface topology, the variation is likely to affect the otherwise monotonous variation of T~. This was pointed out by Lifshitz, 27 who has demonstrated that there will be a change in the density of states and consequently a change in the associated thermodynamic properties if a closed surface transforms into an open surface by the formation of a new "neck". It was also shown by Makarov et aL28 for thallium that there is a change in the density of states due to a change in the topology of the Fermi surface, which led to a nonlinear contribution to To. A similar behavior was also observed by Chu et al. 29 for rhenium. Thallium and rhenium are the two elements which have been found to show an anomalous pressure dependence of To. Merriam 3° has shown that if the Fermi surface is very close to the Brillouin zone boundary and not touching the boundary, normal scattering processes play an important role in determining the electronphonon coupling constant. I f the Fermi surface touches the Brillouin zone boundary, the U m k l a p p scattering process will also be present in addition to the normal scattering processes. Since (•2) is averaged over the Fermi surface, the strength of the coupling constant is determined by the nature of the scattering process. Depending upon which process dominates, the value of the coupling constant may increase or decrease. 4. C O N C L U S I O N S We have calculated the band structure of phosphorus in the simple cubic phase as a function of pressure by means of the LMTO method. The total energies are computed as a function of volume from which we obtained the equilibrium lattice constant, pressure, and bulk modulus. From the band structure calculation, we find that the s-like states around R move towards higher energies, and the d-like state at M drop below the Fermi level, i.e., there is a continuous s-to-d electron transfer under pressure. The changes in the Fermi surface topology under pressure are also studied. We find that the size of the hole pocket around R is decreasing and a new piece of Fermi surface appears around M at about 210 kbar. The superconducting transition temperature is calculated as a function of pressure using the Allen- 12 M. Rajagopalan, M. Alouani, and N. E. Christensen D y n e s formula. We find that the value o f Tc increases with pressure u p to 210 kbar a n d then start to decrease. The initial increase o f Tc is attributed to the c o n t i n u o u s s - t o - d electron transfer u n d e r pressure. 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