Raman and first-principles study of the pressure induced Mott-insulator to metal transition in bulk FePS${}_3$

Abstract

Recently discovered class of 2D materials based on transition metal phosphorous trichalcogenides exhibit antiferromagnetic ground state, with potential applications in spintronics. Amongst them, FePS${}_3$ is a Mott insulator with a band gap of $\sim$ 1.5 eV. This study using Raman spectroscopy along with first-principles density functional theoretical analysis examines the stability of its structure and electronic properties under pressure. Raman spectroscopy reveals two phase transitions at 4.6 GPa and 12 GPa marked by the changes in pressure coefficients of the mode frequencies and the number of symmetry allowed modes. FePS${}_3$ transforms from the ambient monoclinic C2/m phase with a band gap of 1.54 eV to another monoclinic C2/m (band gap of 0.1 eV) phase at 4.6 GPa, followed by another transition at 12 GPa to the metallic trigonal P-31m phase. Our work complements recently reported high pressure X-ray diffraction studies.

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Ising-Type Magnetic Ordering in Atomically Thin FePS3
• Phonon anharmonicities in graphite and graphene
• Sharp Raman Anomalies and Broken Adiabaticity at a Pressure Induced Transition from Band to Topological Insulator in Sb2Se3

Cited by in corpus (3)

• High pressure tuning of magnon-polarons in the layered antiferromagnet FePS${}_3$
• Layered Topological Antiferromagnetic Metal at Room Temperature -- YbMn${}_2$Ge${}_2$
• Pressure-induced transitions in FePS${}_3$: Structural, magnetic and electronic properties