A Tour of Soft Atomic Motions: Chemical Pressure Quadrupoles Across Transition Metal–Main Group 1:2 Structure Types

The rational design of materials requires an understanding of the relationships between structure and properties. In some fields, advances in computational tools and modeling have mapped out many of these connections. In the realm of intermetallics, however, principles for such relationships are still needed. Recently, we illustrated how the DFT–Chemical Pressure (CP) analysis can link geometrical motifs within crystalline arrangements to the phonon band structures of intermetallics and thus the physical properties related to vibrations and atomic motion. The key indicators here are quadrupolar CP features─distributions in which positive and negative interatomic pressures are oriented perpendicular to one another. These quadrupoles then create low energy paths of motion for the atoms that can be linked to various structural phenomena, such as anisotropic vibrations and incommensurate modulations. In this article, we survey the presence of CP quadrupoles in a collection of TE2 structures (T = transition metal and E = main group element) and the roles they play in the behavior observed for these compounds. We begin by developing a metric for CP quadrupolar character, which can be calculated from the output of CP analysis. After compiling these metrics for 17 TE2 structure types, we delve deeper into four systems detected as exhibiting atomic sites with quadrupolar character: (1) the Co–Sn binary system, where the quadrupoles on the Co atoms in CuAl2-type CoSn2 direct the features of its superstructure in CoSn3; (2) arsenopyrite-type CoSb2, in which the highly quadrupolar CP distributions on the Sb atoms correlate with the motions followed during the phase transition to its high-temperature marcasite-type form; (3) the CrSi2 structure, in which the expansion of the lattice is predicted to open a helical path of potential soft motion analogous to that underlying the Nowotny Chimney Ladder series; and (4) the CdAs2 type, whose CP features anticipate the ability to incorporate Li atoms as guests. Together, these case studies highlight the potential for CP quadrupoles to link local atomic arrangements with a variety of emergent properties in intermetallic phases.