Magnetostructural, mechanical and electronic properties of manganese tetraboride

Magnetostructural stabilities, mechanical behaviors and electronic structures of various phases of manganese tetraboride (MnB4) have been investigated systematically by density functional theory (DFT) based first-principles methods. It is found that MnB4 undergoes temperature-induced phase transitions from the nonmagnetic (NM) monoclinic mP20 structure to the ferromagnetic (FM) orthorhombic oP10 structure at 438 K, then to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) orthorhombic oP10 structure at 824 K. We reveal that the NM insulating mP20 phase stabilizes by the Peierls distortion breaking the structural degeneracy, while the FM and AFM metallic oP10 phases stabilize by the Stoner magnetism lifting the spin degeneracy. Furthermore, the calculated mechanical properties show that the NM mP20, FM oP10, and AFM oP10 phases exhibit low compressibility and high hardness, which originate from their three-dimensional covalent boron networks. Therefore, this unique temperature-assisted insulator-metal transition, strong stiffness and high hardness suggest that MnB4 may find promising technological applications as thermoelectric switches and field effect transistors at the extreme conditions.