Nonadiabatic effects in the lattice dynamics of compressed rare-gas crystals

Abstract

Electron-ion contributions to the energy of rare-gas crystals are discussed from first principles in the framework of the Tolpygo model and its variants. The frequencies of phonons in a neon crystal at pressures p ≠ 0 are calculated in terms of models that go beyond the scope of the adiabatic approximation. Analysis of the contributions from different interactions to the lattice dynamics of the crystals demonstrates that the phonon frequencies calculated in the framework of the simplest model (allowing only for the nearest neighbors) and the most complex model (with the inclusion of the nearest neighbors, next-nearest neighbors, nonadiabatic effects, etc.) for small wave vectors are close to each other. The difference between the phonon frequencies calculated within the above models is most pronounced at the Brillouin zone boundary. Under strong compression, the phonon spectrum along the Δ direction is distorted and the longitudinal mode is softened as a result of the electron-phonon interaction. The contribution from terms of higher orders in the overlap integral S at p ≠ 0 to the phonon frequencies is more significant than that obtained in the band-structure calculations of the neon crystal.