First-principles calculations of the ferroelastic transition between rutile-type and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CaCl</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>-type<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>SiO</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>at high pressures

Abstract

The tetragonal to orthorhombic ferroelastic phase transition between rutile- and ${\text{CaCl}}_{2}$-type ${\text{SiO}}_{2}$ at high pressures is studied using first-principles calculations and the Landau free-energy expansion. The phase transition is systematically investigated in terms of characteristic phonon modes with ${\text{B}}_{1g}$ and ${\text{A}}_{g}$ symmetries, shear moduli, transverse-acoustic mode, rotation angle of the ${\text{SiO}}_{6}$ octahedra, spontaneous symmetry-breaking and volume strains, and enthalpy. The results show that these physical behaviors at the transition are well described using the Landau free-energy expansion parametrized by the first-principles calculations.