A relationship, for face-centered cubic metals and intermetallic compounds having B2 and L12 structures, had been proposed for correlating the activation energy for self-diffusion with lattice-constant and shear-modulus data. The present aim was to show that this formalism could be extended to intermetallic compounds having C1, D03 or C15 structures. Since covalently-bonded cubic semiconductors and ceramics obeyed a different law, the question of the influence of the chemical bond was also investigated. Thus, ionic crystals and oxides having B1, B2 and C1 structures were analyzed. It was demonstrated that, for the B1 structure, these materials obeyed the same law as did metals and intermetallic compounds. However, the pre-factor of the common rule was different. In order to be able to evaluate such differences, the proposed relationship had to be more quantitative than before. Some cubic transition metals did not fit the general picture. The deviations were traced to the binding properties of the electronic d-bands.

A Single Law for the Activation Energies of Self-Diffusion of Various Cubic Metals, Intermetallic Compounds, Ionic Crystals and Oxides. H.Siethoff: Physica Status Solidi B, 2006, 244[4], 1296-303