Energetics and structural stability of Cs3C60

Using the ab initio pseudopotential total-energy method and the density–functional theory, we study the energetics of face-centered-cubic Cs3C60 which is a material of great interest as a possible high transition-temperature superconductor. At the optimized lattice constant the volume per C60 is found to be smaller than the the most-stable hexagon-coordination A15 phase, while the total energy of the fcc phase is about 0.9 eV higher than the A15 phase. These results indicate that a low-temperature and high-pressure synthesis method might be a possible way to produce the fcc Cs3C60 phase. In addition, it is also found that the A15 Cs3C60 should show a phase transformation from a hexagon-coordination phase to a pentagon-coordination phase under hydrostatic pressure.