Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2018) 133: 541
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-12397-x

Regular Article

A complete DFT description on structural, electronic, elastic, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of some intermetallic AuX₂ (X = Al, Ga, In) compounds

¹ Department of Physics, Govt. Motilal Vigyan Mahavidyalya College, 462008, MP, Bhopal, India
² Department of Physics, NRI Institute of Research & Technology, 462021, MP, Bhopal, India
³ Department of Physics, Barkatullah University Hosangabad Road, 462026, Bhopal, India
⁴ Department of Physics, S. N. P. G. College, 450001, MP, Khandwa, India

^* e-mail: sajad54453@gmail.com

Received: 30 May 2018
Accepted: 14 November 2018
Published online: 21 December 2018

Abstract

The electronic structure, elastic, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of some cubic intermetallic compounds AuX₂(X = Al, Ga, In) have been studied within the density functional theory (DFT) using the full potential linearized augmented plane-wave technique (FP-LAPW). The designed values of structural parameters including lattice constant, bulks modulus and ground-states energies are found in good agreement with the available data. The spin included electronic examination presents the metallic nature for all the three compounds with symmetry in spin-up and spin-down states. The elastic properties have been calculated under ambient conditions and have been used to envisage some vital mechanical factors like bulk modulus (B), Young’s modulus (Y), shear modulus (G), Poisson ratio () and anisotropic factor (A). The calculated results reveal that AuX₂(X = Al, Ga, In) compounds establish low elastic anisotropy, low hardness and high ductility. Quasi-harmonic Debye approximation has been used to investigate pressure and temperature dependence of bulk modulus (B), heat capacity (C_v), thermal expansion (, and Debye temperature (. Furthermore, C_v was found to strictly follow the Debye T³-law and Dulong-Petit limit for all the three compounds.