Ab initio investigation of electronic structure and magnetic transformation during the bcc to hcp transition in Fe induced by pressure

The pressure-induced structural transition from a body-centered cubic (bcc) to a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) crystal in Fe is studied through ab initio electronic structure calculations, combining with the thermodynamic and kinetic phase-transition methods. According to the energy-volume relationship and thermodynamic criterion, the reasonable phase transition pressure is calculated to be about 13.88 GPa. The SSNEB method is employed to examine kinetic structural and barrier changes along bcc-hcp transition under various pressures. The transformation path involves the deformation of (110)_bcc into the tightly packed (0001)_hcp, accompanied by the relative slip of (110)_bcc along the [1̅10]_bcc direction, leading to the formation of the hcp structure. Our results indicate a reduction in the transition barrier of bcc-hcp with increasing pressure. Under the thermodynamic phase transition pressure, the bcc-hcp phase transition barrier is still as high as 140 meV, implying that pure hydrostatic pressure is not a sufficient condition to drive the phase transition. In addition, different from the continuous change of volume, the magnetism of the structure undergoes a magnetic mutation at the transition state, and the phase transition process involves complex magnetic transitions.