B1-to-B8 structural phase transition in MnO under pressure:: Comparison of all-electron and pseudopotential approaches

We employ the density-functional theory to study a structural transition of MnO from B1 (rocksalt) to B8 (NiAs) structures that was observed experimentally at pressures around 100 GPa. We utilize all-electron description as well as norm-conserving pseudopotentials and demonstrate that these two approaches can significantly differ in quantitative predictions. We explicitly show that even small-core pseudopotentials exhibit transferability inaccuracies for quantities sensitive to the energy differences between high- and low-spin polarizations of valence electrons.