Elastic Properties of Potassium Halides under Pressure

The moderate-pressure elastic properties of potassium halides KX (X=F, CI, Br) was studied theoretically using the density functional theory (DFT) with normconserving pseudopotentials method. The phase transfor- mation from the B1 phase (NaCl-type structure) to the denser B2 phase (CsCl-type structure) occurred at 7.7, 3.46 and 2.96 GPa for KF, KCl and KBr, respectively. The elastic stiffness coefficients and bulk modulus of these materials were calculated as function of hydrostatic pressure and compared with both the experimental and theoretical values.