On structure-stabilizing electronic interferences in bcc-related phases. A research report

This study deals with cubic crystals where the contents of the simple cubic unit cells are close to n$\times$n$\times$n-bcc sublattices ($n$ = 2: diamond- and zinc-blende type, $n$ = 3: $\gamma$-brasses). First-principle results on the electronic structure are obtained from augmented LMTO-ASA calculations and interpreted within a VEC-based Hume-Rothery concept which employs joined planar-radial interferences to treat interference and hybridization on the same footing. We show that the charge redistribution supports enhanced electronic interference which causes the band energy to decrease. Several topics are included such as stabilizing networks, hardness and $s$-to-$p$ transfer, co-operation of interferences, interplay between local radial order and global planar order, electron-per-atom ratio, and the comparison with recent FLAPW-based results.