High pressure phase transitions and variation of elastic constants of some II-VI semiconductors

This paper reports an investigation of the pressure-induced phase transitions and dependence of elastic constants of ZnS, ZnSe and ZnTe on pressure using a three-body-potential (TBP) approach. The phase-transition pressures and associated volume collapses obtained from this approach show a reasonably good agreement with experimental data. The variations of elastic constants and their combinations with pressure follow a systematic trend, identical to that observed in other semiconductors of the zincblende structure family. It is found that this TBP model has a promise to predict the phase-transition pressure and the pressure variation of elastic constants of other semiconductors as well.