English

First-principles study of stability and vibrational properties of tetragonal PbTiO_3

mtrl-th 2009-10-30 v1 Materials Science

Abstract

A first-principles study of the vibrational modes of PbTiO_3 in the ferroelectric tetragonal phase has been performed at all the main symmetry points of the Brillouin zone (BZ). The calculations use the local-density approximation and ultrasoft pseudopotentials with a plane-wave basis, and reproduce well the available experimental information on the modes at the Gamma point, including the LO-TO splittings. The work was motivated in part by a previously reported transition to an orthorhombic phase at low temperatures [(J. Kobayashi, Y. Uesu, and Y. Sakemi, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 28}, 3866 (1983)]. We show that a linear coupling of orthorhombic strain to one of the modes at Gamma plays a role in the discussion of the possibility of this phase transition. However, no mechanical instabilities (soft modes) are found, either at Gamma or at any of the other high-symmetry points of the BZ.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.mtrl-th/9603007,
  title  = {First-principles study of stability and vibrational properties of tetragonal PbTiO_3},
  author = {Alberto Garcia and David Vanderbilt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:mtrl-th/9603007},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages, two-column style with 3 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#ag_pbti