Pressure induced Ag2Te polymorphs in conjunction with topological non trivial to metal transition

Silver telluride (Ag2Te) is well known as superionic conductor and topological insulator with polymorphs. Pressure induced three phase transitions in Ag2Te have been reported in previous. Here, we experimentally identified high pressure phase above 13 GPa of Ag2Te by using high pressure synchrotron x ray diffraction method in combination with evolutionary crystal structure prediction, showing it crystallizes into a monoclinic structure of space group C2/m with lattice parameters a = 6.081 angstrom, b = 5.744 angstrom, c = 6.797 angstrom, beta = 105.53 degrees. The electronic properties measurements of Ag2Te reveal that the topologically non-trivial semiconducting phase I and semimetallic phase II previously predicated by theory transformed into bulk metals for high pressure phases in consistent with the first principles calculations. (C) 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).