Electronic, ductile, phase transition and mechanical properties of Lu-monopnictides under high pressures

Comparative study of the compensated semi-metals LaBi and LuBi: a first-principles approach

We have investigated the electronic structures of LaBi and LuBi, employing the full-potential all electron method as implemented in Wien2k. Using this, we have studied in detail both the bulk and the surface states of these materials. From our band structure calculations we find that LuBi, like LaBi, is a compensated semi-metal with almost equal and sizable electron and hole pockets. In analogy with experimental evidence in LaBi, we thus predict that LuBi will also be a candidate for extremely large magneto-resistance (XMR), which should be of immense technological interest. Our calculations reveal that LaBi, despite being gapless in the bulk spectrum, displays the characteristic features of a [Formula: see text] topological semi-metal, resulting in gapless Dirac cones on the surface, whereas LuBi only shows avoided band inversion in the bulk and is thus a conventional compensated semi-metal with extremely large magneto-resistance.

Fermi surface topology and magnetotransport in semimetallic LuSb

Several rare-earth monopnictides were shown to exhibit extreme magnetoresistance and field-induced low-temperature plateau of electrical resistivity. These features are also hallmarks of topological semimetals, thus the family is intensively explored with respect to magneto-transport properties and possible hosting Dirac fermion states. We report a comprehensive investigation of Fermi surface and electrical transport properties of LuSb, another representative of this family. At low temperatures, the magnetoresistance of LuSb was found to exceed 3000% without saturation in fields up to 9 T. Analysis of the Hall effect and the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations revealed that the Fermi surface of this compound consists of several pockets originating from fairly compensated multi-band electronic structure, in full accordance with our first-principles calculations. Observed magnetotransport properties of LuSb can be attributed to the topology of three-dimensional Fermi surface and a compensation of electron and hole contributions.

Static and Dynamical Properties of heavy actinide Monopnictides of Lutetium

In this work, density functional theory within the framework of generalized gradient approximation has been used to investigate the structural, elastic, mechanical, and phonon properties of lutetium monopnictides in rock-salt crystal structure. The spin orbit coupling and Hubbard-U corrections are included to correctly predict the essential properties of these compounds. The elastic constants, Young's modulus E, Poisson's ratio v, shear modulus G, anisotropy factor A and Pugh's ratio are computed. We found that all lutetium monopnictides are anisotropic and show brittle character. From the wave velocities along [100], [110] and [111] directions, melting temperature of lutetium monopnictides are predicted. Dynamical stability of these monopnictides has been studied by density functional perturbation theory.