Electronic and optical properties of AlN under pressure: DFT calculations

Abstract

Structural, elastic, optical, and electronic properties of wurtzite (WZ), zinc-blende (ZB), and rocksalt (RS) structures of AlN are investigated using the first-principles method and within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). Lattice parameters, bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, and elastic constants are calculated at zero pressure and compared with other experimental and theoretical results. The wurtzite and zinc-blende structures have a transition to rocksalt phase at the pressures of 12.7 GPa and 14 GPa, respectively. The electronic properties are calculated using both GGA and EV-GGA approximations; the obtained results by EV-GGA approximation are in much better agreement with the available experimental data. The RS phase has the largest bandgap with an amount of 4.98 eV; by increasing pressure, this amount is also increased. The optical properties like dielectric function, energy loss function, refractive index, and extinction coefficient are calculated under pressure using GGA approximation. Inter-band transitions are investigated using the peaks of imaginary part of the dielectric function and these transitions mainly occur from N-2[Formula: see text] to Al-3[Formula: see text] levels. The results show that the RS structure has more different properties than the WZ and ZB structures.