Electronic topological transition and phase transition in rhodium and iridium based inter metallic compounds

Of the Rh₃Y, Rh₃La, Ir₃Y and Ir₃La inter-metallic compounds, the compound Rh₃Y exists in hexagonal structure, Ir₃Y and Ir₃La exist in rhombohedral structure, whereas the compound Rh₃La exists in both hexagonal and rhombohedral structures. Based on our tight binding-linear muffin tin orbital (TB-LMTO) study of other rhodium and iridium-based Rh₃X and Ir₃X (where X=Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta and Sc) inter-metallic compounds of AuCu₃ type cubic structure, an attempt is made to examine whether the compounds Rh₃Y, Rh₃La, Ir₃Y and Ir₃La will undergo a structural phase transition to cubic structure from their experimentally reported structures. From our study, it is observed that the compounds Rh₃Y and Rh₃La undergo a structural phase transition to cubic phase at 4.5 and 10.1 GPa, respectively, from their experimentally reported hexagonal and rhombohedral phases. Further it is predicted that both the compounds Ir₃Y and Ir₃La can exist in the cubic phase itself at ambient condition, in contrary to the experimental observation. From the band structure outputs that have been plotted for the compounds under compression, it is observed that the compounds Rh₃La, Ir₃Y and Ir₃La undergo the Lifshitz type of transition which may change the Fermi surface topology and hence the physical properties of these compounds.