ABSTRACT:
Summary It is shown in the framework of the pseudopotential approach that there is a sizable attractive short-range component of the interatomic potential due to thes-d interaction which has the same functional form in real space as the Born-Mayer repulsion due to the overlap of core electron wave functions centred on neighbouring ions. The magnitude of this attractive component is such as to completely cancel the conventional Born-Mayer repulsion, making the resultant short-range interatomic potential attractive rather than repulsive. Numerical calculations show that the attractive interatomic potential, which represents the local-field correction, leads to a better understanding of the occurrence of the soft modes in the phonon dispersion curves of niobium and tantalum.
Il Nuovo Cimento D 06/1987; 9(6):647-656. DOI:10.1007/BF02457026
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