Ab initio study on hypothetical silver nitride

We perform the ab initio calculations based on norm-conserving pseudopotentials and density functional theory to investigate the structural, elastic, and thermodynamical properties for silver nitride (AgN) compound that is a member of the 4d transition metal group and has not been synthesized yet. The obtained results are compared with the other available theoretical data, and the agreement is, generally, quite good. We also present the pressure-dependent behaviour of some mechanical and thermodynamical properties for the same compounds. © 2008 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd