Structural, mechanical and electronic properties of 3d transition metal nitrides in cubic zincblende, rocksalt and cesium chloride structures: a first-principles investigation

We report systematic results from ab initio calculations with density functional theory on three cubic structures, zincblende (zb), rocksalt (rs) and cesium chloride (cc), of the ten 3d transition metal nitrides. We computed lattice constants, elastic constants, their derived moduli and ratios that characterize mechanical properties. Experimental measurements exist in the literature of lattice constants for rs-ScN, rs-TiN and rs-VN and of elastic constants for rs-TiN and rs-VN, all of which are in good agreement with our computational results. Similarly, computed Vickers hardness (H-V) values for rs-TiN and rs-VN are consistent with earlier experimental results. Several trends were observed in our rich data set of 30 compounds. All nitrides, except for zb-CrN, rs-MnN, rs-FeN, cc-ScN, cc-CrN, cc-NiN and cc-ZnN, were found to be mechanically stable. A clear correlation in the atomic density with the bulk modulus (B) was observed with maximum values of B around FeN, MnN and CrN. The shear modulus, Young's modulus, H-V and indicators of brittleness showed similar trends and all showed maxima for cc-VN. The calculated value of H-V for cc-VN was about 30 GPa, while the next highest values were for rs-ScN and rs-TiN, about 24 GPa. A relation (H-V proportional to theta(2)(D)) between H-V and Debye temperature (theta(D)) was investigated and verified for each structure type. A tendency for anti-correlation of the elastic constant C-44, which strongly influences stability and hardness, with the number of electronic states around the Fermi energy was observed.