Debye temperature, self-diffusion and elastic constants of intermetallic compounds

Abstract The Debye temperature of a material is a suitable parameter to describe phenomena of solid-state physics which are associated with lattice vibrations. It basically depends on the elastic constants. In recent work a simple method was put forward that allows one to derive precise Debye temperatures of crystals with cubic, hexagonal and tetragonal symmetry from the elastic constants. The type of chemical binding does not play any role. It is one aim of the present work to apply this method to various intermetallic compounds, i.e. to critically analyse published Debye temperatures and to calculate hitherto unknown values. It is a further aim to show that the activation energy of self-diffusion is also connected with the elastic constants by a simple law at least for the cubic B2 and L12 intermetallics, as it was recently found for face-centred cubic metals. Some consequences for high-temperature plasticity are discussed.