Vacancy structure of crystals at high temperature. thermodynamic properties and melting

A self consistent statistical method for the calculation of thermodynamic properties for simple crystals is used to study the formation of vacancies in rare gas crystals (RGC) at high temperature near the melting point. We show that the vacancy formation energy drops dramatically as the melting temperature is approached and that the vacancies repel each other. An analysis of the solid state parameters at high temperature leads to the conclusion that at high temperature Structural defects, such as vacancies, dislocations, etc., are centers of relaxation for the excessive potential energy of the interatomic interaction.