Lattice vibration of Ce1-xScxFe4Al8

The lattice constants of the rare earth intermetallic compounds Ce1-xScxFe4Al8 are calculated based on the interatomic potentials obtained by a lattice inversion method. The results are in agreement with experiments. Further, some simple mechanical properties such as the elastic constants and bulk modulus are also investigated for these materials. It is noted that, the phonon densities of states are first evaluated for the quarternary intermetallic compounds with ThMn12-type structure and a qualitative analysis for the vibrational modes is presented. This may be an attempt to predict the mechanical and thermodynamic properties for the rare earth materials with complex structures. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All fights reserved.