Ionic Charge and Lattice Dynamics of Cubic Zinc Sulphide

The lattice dynamics of cubic zinc sulphide is established with special attention paid to the value of static ionic charge. A simple ten parameters model of deformable ions is used which treats the short‐range interactions in terms of the valence force field and which considers the mechanical and electrical polarizabilities of the atoms in a simple manner. The recent inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the phonon dispersion curves being taken into account, the static ionic charge was found to be within the limits q Zn ϵ (+0.25; +0.5) ∣e∣ and the value q Zn = +0.335 ∣e∣ is considered as the most convenient one for the lattice dynamical calculations. Phonon dispersion curves and the density of states are calculated, the influence of various simplifications of the model is discussed.