Thermal Expansion and Compressibility of Solid Neon and Xenon

Abstract The lattice constants and isothermal compressibility of solidified neon and xenon are calculated at various temperatures for the harmonic approximation. An (exp, 6) potential function is used and zero‐point energy is included in the same way as in earlier papers. The theoretical and observed values of lattice constants and compressibility agree reasonably well for xenon but not so well for neon. It is suggested that the interaction in neon is somewhat analogous to that in helium, and the usual potentials which are applicable to heavy rare gas solids i.e. argon, krypton and xenon, are not suitable for neon.