The High-Pressure Superconducting Phase of Arsenic

Ab initio random structure searching (AIRSS) technique is predicted a stable structure of arsenic (As). We find that the body-centered tetragonal (bct) structure with spacegroup I4(1)/acd to be the stable structure at high pressure. Our calculation suggests transition sequence from the simple cubic (sc) structure transforms into the host-guest (HG) structure at 41 GPa and then into the bct structure at 81 GPa. The bct structure has been calculated using ab initio lattice dynamics with finite displacement method confirm the stability at high pressure. The spectral function α(2)F of the bct structure is higher than those of the body-centered cubic (bcc) structure. It is worth noting that both bct and bcc structures share the remarkable similarity of structural and property. Here we have reported the prediction of temperature superconductivity of the bct structure, with a T(c) of 4.2 K at 150 GPa.