Charge redistribution and phonon entropy of vanadium alloys

The effects of alloying on the lattice dynamics of vanadium were investigated using inelastic neutron scattering. Phonon densities of states were obtained for bcc solid solutions of V with 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal solutes, from which vibrational entropies of alloying were obtained. A good correlation is found between the vibrational entropy of alloying and the electronegativity of transition metal solutes across the 3d row and down columns of the periodic table. First-principles calculations on supercells matching the experimental compositions predicted a systematic charge redistribution in the nearest-neighbor shell around the solute atoms, also following the Pauling and Watson electronegativity scales. The systematic stiffening of the phonons is interpreted in terms of the modified screening properties of the electron density around the solutes.