Dynamical stabilization of the body centered cubic phase in lanthanum and thorium by phonon–phonon interaction

Abstract

A recently developed self-consistent ab initio lattice dynamical method has been applied to the high temperature body centered cubic (bcc) phase of La and Th, which are dynamically unstable at low temperatures. The bcc phase of these metals is found to be stabilized by phonon-phonon interactions. The calculated high temperature phonon frequencies for La are found to be in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data.