Nonexistence of the Diatomic<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">β</mml:mi></mml:math>-Tin Structure

Abstract

Many high-pressure phases of the III-V and II-VI semiconductors have been believed to have the diatomic equivalent of the (tetragonal) $\ensuremath{\beta}$-tin structure. Recent work has shown this to be incorrect in several cases. It is now shown that the same is true of all the remaining possibilities---AlSb, HgSe, InP, and GaP. The phases concerned all have orthorhombic structures of the Cmcm type. The apparent nonexistence of the $\ensuremath{\beta}$-tin structure has important implications for the structural systematics.