Ab-initio insights into the pressure dependent physical properties and possible high-Tc superconductivity in monoclinic and orthorhombic MgVH6

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to explore the pressure-dependent structural, electronic, and superconducting properties of MgVH6 in monoclinic and orthorhombic phases, revealing potential high-temperature superconductivity and superhard characteristics.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical analysis of MgVH6's stability, mechanical, optical, and superconducting properties under pressure, highlighting the possibility of high-Tc superconductivity in the orthorhombic phase.

Findings

Both phases are thermodynamically stable.

Orthorhombic phase exhibits superhard behavior at 100 GPa.

Superconducting transition temperatures range from 26.1 K to 104.7 K under pressure.

Abstract

Here we have used the density functional theory (DFT) with the GGA-PBE approximation to investigate the structural, mechanical, electronic, hardness, thermal, superconductivity and optoelectronic properties under pressure for monoclinic (P21/m) and orthorhombic (Pmn21) structures of MgVH6. We have studied optical properties of P21/m phase at 0 GPa and Pmn21 phase at 100 GPa only (considering phase stability). Both of the phases of MgVH6 are thermodynamically stable. P21/m phase is mechanically stable but Pmn21 is mechanically unstable in our calculations for the pressures considered. Monoclinic (P21/m) is ductile in nature, on the other hand, orthorhombic (Pmn21) is brittle in nature at 100 GPa and becomes ductile for pressures in the range from 125 GPa to 200 GPa. Hardness calculations indicate superhard character of orthorhombic (Pmn21) structure at 100 GPa. The melting temperature of orthorhombic crystal is very high. This also agrees with the bulk modulus, Debye temperature, and hardness calculations. We have calculated theoretically the superconducting transition temperature Tc at different pressures only for the orthorhombic (Pmn21) structure following a previous study. The estimated values of transition temperatures are within 104.7 K to 26.1 K in the pressure range from 100 GPa to 200 GPa. MgVH6, in both the structures, are elastically and optically anisotropic.