Elastic and thermodynamic properties of CaB6 under pressure from first principles

The elastic and thermodynamic properties of CsCl-type structure CaB6 under high pressure are investigated by first-principles calculations based on plane-wave pseudopotential density functional theory method within the generalized gradient approximation(GGA). The calculated lattice parameters of CaB6 under zero pressure and zero temperature are in good agreement with the existing experimental data and other theoretical data. The pressure dependences of the elastic constants, bulk modulus B (GPa), and its pressure derivative B', shear modulus G, Young's modulus E, elastic Debye temperature Theta(B), Zener's anisotropy parameter A, Poisson ratios sigma, and Kleinmann parameter zeta are also presented. An analysis for the calculated elastic constants has been made to reveal the mechanical stability of CaB6 up to 100 GPa. The thermodynamic properties of the CsCl-type structure CaB6 are predicted using the quasi-harmonic Debye model. The pressure-volume-temperature (P-V-T) relationship, the variations of the heat capacity C-V, Debye temperature Theta(D), and the thermal expansion alpha with pressure P and temperature T, as well as the Gruneisen parameters gamma are obtained systematically in the ranges of 0-100 GPa and 0-2000K. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.