First-Principles Molecular Dynamics Calculations of the Equation of State for Tantalum

The equation of state of tantalum (Ta) has been investigated to 100 GPa and 3,000 K using the first-principles molecular dynamics method. A large volume dependence of the thermal pressure of Ta was revealed from the analysis of our data. A significant temperature dependence of the calculated effective Gruneisen parameters was confirmed at high pressures. This indicates that the conventional approach to analyze thermal properties using the Mie-Gruneisen approximation is likely to have a significant uncertainty in determining the equation of state for Ta, and that an intrinsic anharmonicity should be considered to analyze the equation of state.