Optical properties and chemical bonding of 3C-SiC under high-pressure

Abstract The effect of high pressure on the crystal structure, optical properties and the nature of chemical bonding of the wide-gap semiconductor 3C-SiC has been investigated using a pseudopotential approach. Estimated physical parameters in this study are in good accord with data reported by other investigators. The dependence of structural parameters, band-gap energies, valence-band width, refractive index, high-frequency dielectric constant and optical electronegativity is examined and discussed. The pressure effect up to 600 kbar does not change the nature of the semiconductor band-gap; meanwhile, the valence band width is monotonically widened and the optical electronegativity is linearly decreased suggesting thus the increase of the covalency character of the material of interest upon compression.