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D.E. acknowledges the financial support given by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (MCIU) under grant nos. PID2019-106383GB-C41 and RED2018-102612-T (MALTA Consolider-Team network) and by Generalitat Valenciana under Grant Prometeo/2018/123 (EFIMAT). R.F. and A. Lobato are grateful to financial support from Spanish MCIU under grant PGC2018-094814-B-C22. We would like to thank TGCC under the allocation 2020-A0080910433 made by GENCI, the PMMS (Pôle Messin de Modélisation et de Simulation), the Tirant supercomputer (Universitat de Valencia), and the MALTA-Consolider facilities for providing us the computational resources. S.G. and M.B. also acknowledge financial support through the COMETE project (Conception in silico de Matériaux pour l’Environnement et l’Energie) co-funded by the European Union under the program “FEDERFSE Lorraine et Massif des Vosges 2014–2020”.

AM2X4 crystalline materials display important technological electronic, optical and magnetic properties that are sensitive to general stress effects. In this paper, the behavior under hydrostatic pressure of the ambient condition rhombohedral phase of MgIn2Se4 is investigated in detail for the first time. We carried out first-principles calculations within the density functional theory framework aimed at determining the pressure-induced polymorphic sequence of this selenide. To accurately evaluate transition pressures at room temperature, thermal corrections have been included after the computation of phonon dispersion curves in potential candidate phases, namely the initial rhombohedral Rm one, inverse and direct spinels, LiTiO2-type and defective I structures. Only the transition from the Rm to the inverse spinel phase was found to fulfill the thermodynamic and mechanical stability criteria. The direct spinel could appear as metastable if kinetic effects hinder the above transition. Additionally, electronic band structures and chemical bonding properties were analyzed from the outcome of our quantum-mechanical solutions reporting band gap values and ionicity and noncovalent interaction indexes. It is shown that the investigated compound keeps behaving as a semiconductor, loses its van der Waals interactions, and becomes more covalent as hydrostatic pressure is applied.

Understanding the stability limit of crystalline materials under variable tensile stress conditions is of capital interest for technological applications. In this study, we present results from first-principles density functional theory calculations that quantitatively account for the response of selected covalent and layered materials to general stress conditions. In particular, we have evaluated the ideal strength along the main crystallographic directions of 3C and 2H polytypes of SiC, hexagonal ABA stacking of graphite and 2H-MoS 2 . Transverse superimposed stress on the tensile stress was taken into account in order to evaluate how the critical strength is affected by these multi-load conditions. In general, increasing transverse stress from negative to positive values leads to the expected decreasing of the critical strength. Few exceptions found in the compressive stress region correlate with the trends in the density of bonds along the directions with the unexpected behavior. In addition, we propose a modified spinodal equation of state able to accurately describe the calculated stress&ndash, strain curves. This analytical function is of general use and can also be applied to experimental data anticipating critical strengths and strain values, and for providing information on the energy stored in tensile stress processes.