Ab-initio study of structural phase transitions and optoelectronic properties in BeH2 at increasing pressure

The structural stability, electronic and optical properties of BeH₂ under high pressure have been studied using the density functional theory (DFT) employing full potential-linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The exchange correlation functional has been solved using the generalized gradient approximation. The calculations show that BeH₂ becomes unstable upon application of pressure. At a pressure of 29.40 GPa the ground state α-BeH₂ transforms to hypothetical phase β-BeH₂ and further at a pressure of 53.77 GPa (with respect to the ground state α-BeH₂) β-BeH₂ transforms to γ-BeH₂. In α-BeH₂ phase it remains as an insulator while in β-BeH₂ phase its behavior becomes metallic. But upon further increase in pressure it becomes a semiconductor in γ-BeH₂ phase. Hence the possibility of obtaining high-pressure phases with superconducting properties cannot be ruled out. There occurs a huge equilibrium volume collapse at α- to β-phase transition and relatively smaller volume changes at β- to γ-phase transition. Our obtained value of dielectric constant (3.0) for α-BeH₂ is in excellent agreement with earlier reported value (3.1). Also BeH₂ shows anisotropic behavior in all three studied phases.