Impact of pressure on the resonant bonding in Chalcogenides

Resonant bonding has been appreciated as an important feature in some chalcogenides. The establishment of resonant bonding can significantly delocalize the electrons and shrink the band gap, leading to low electrical resistivity and soft optical phonons. Many materials that exhibit this bonding mechanism have applications in phase-change memory and thermoelectric devices. Resonant bonding can be tuned by various means, including thermal excitations and changes in composition. In this work, we manipulate it by applying large hydrostatic-like pressure. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction and density functional theory reveal that the orthorhombic lattice of GeSe appears to become more symmetric and the Born effective charge has significantly increased at high pressure, indicating that resonant bonding has been established in this material. In contrast, the resonant bonding is partially weakened in PbSe at high pressure due to the discontinuity of chemical bonds along a certain lattice direction. By controlling resonant bonding in chalcogenides, we are able to modify the material properties and tailor them for various applications in extreme conditions.