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An electronically driven lattice deformation which explains qualitatively the supermodulus effect in metallic superlattices is derived. It is shown in the Thomas-Fermi approximation that the total energy of a metallic superlattice is lowered by uniform deformations of the constituent materials. The theory gives the correct order of magnitude for changes in lattice constants, explains why the supermodulus effect is not observed in systems in which at least one constituent is nonmetallic, and predicts the absence of an effect when the bulk Fermi energies of the constituent metals are equal.
Huberman et al. (1989) studied this question.