Phonon dispersion of bcc iron to 10 GPa

The phonon dispersion of bcc iron under high pressure to 10 GPa was measured at 300 K by inelastic neutron scattering. Its pressure dependence is surprisingly uniform. Contrary to the behavior found in other bcc elements, there is a lack of any significant pretransitional behavior close to the martensitic bcc-hcp transition which could be related to the Burgers mechanism. This finding confirms predictions by spin-polarized total energy calculations that explain the transition by the effect of pressure on the magnetism of iron. The high pressure frequencies were used to develop a lattice dynamical model from which thermodynamic quantities can be determined at any pressure to 10 GPa.