Structural stability of TiO and TiN under high pressure

The high pressure phase transition and elastic behavior of Transition Metal Compounds (TiO and TiN) which crystallize in NaCl-structure have been investigated using the three body potential model (TBPM) approach. These interactions arise due to the electron-shell deformation of the overlapping ions in crystals. The TBP model consists of a long range Coulomb, three body interactions, and the short-range overlap repulsive forces operative up to the second neighboring ions. The authors of this paper estimated the values of the phase transition pressures, associated volume collapses, and elastic constants, all of which were found to be closer to available experimental data than other calculations. Thus, the TBPM approach promises to predict the phase transition pressure and pressure variations of elastic constants of Transition Metal compounds.