A first-principles study on the structural, elastic, electronic, and optical properties of CdRh2O4

The structural, elastic, electronic, and optical properties of CdRh2O4 with cubic $$ (Fd\overline{ 3} m) $$ and orthorhombic (Pnma) structures have been investigated using a pseudopotential plane wave (PP-PW) method within the local density approximation (LDA). The calculated lattice parameters agree reasonably with the experimental values. The single-crystal elastic stiffness constants C ij s of the cubic and orthorhombic phases are investigated using the stress–strain method. In addition, the polycrystalline elastic properties including bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, bulk modulus–shear modulus ratio, Poisson’s ratio, and elastic anisotropy ratio are determined based on Voigt–Reuss–Hill approach. The use of the hybrid functional sX-LDA leads to considerably improved electronic properties compared to standard LDA approach. On the other hand, the dielectric function, refraction index, reflectivity, conductivity function, and energy-loss spectra were obtained and analyzed on the basis of electronic band structures and density of states.