Ab initio investigation of CaO-ZnO alloys under high pressure

Abstract

Ca x Zn 1-x O alloys are potential candidates to achieve wide band-gap, which might significantly promote the band gap engineering and heterojunction design. We performed a crystal structure search for CaO-ZnO system under pressure, using an ab initio evolutionary algorithm implemented in the USPEX code. Four stable ordered Ca x Zn 1-x O structures are found in the pressure range of 8.7-60 GPa. We further constructed the pressure vs. composition phase diagram of CaO-ZnO alloys based on the detailed enthalpy calculations. With the increase in Ca concentration, the CaO-ZnO alloy first undergoes a hexagonal to monoclinic transition, and then transforms back to a hexagonal phase. At Above 9 GPa, there is no cubic structure in the alloys, in contrast to the insostructural components (B1-B1). The band gap of the Ca x Zn 1-x O alloy shows an almost linear increase as a function of the Ca concentration. We also investigated the variation regularity of the band gap under pressure.