CORE AND VALENCE THERMAL VIBRATIONS IN DIAMOND, SILICON, AND GERMANIUM

An analysis is made using published X-ray data, for the thermal vibrations in diamond, silicon, and germanium. The overall thermal vibration is split into core and valence contributions, because valence electrons can oscillate with different phase and amplitude than core electrons due to bond polarizability. Using indigenously developed computer programs the published data are analyzed. In the first phase, the overall Debye-Waller factor of diamond, Si, and Ge together with scaling and extinction factors are refined using the method of least squares. In the second phase, the core and valence contributions of the harmonic temperature factor are evaluated. Finally, in the third phase, the core and valence contributions of the anharmonic temperature factor are evaluated. The error in the fitting procedure is less than 1% for Si and Ge and about 3% for diamond.