General construction of mean-field potential and its application to the multiphase equations of state of tin

The mean-field potential (MFP) approach is an efficient way to evaluate the free energy contribution of ion motions for both solid and liquid states. In this paper the MFP is generally constructed with a volume-dependent term and a shape function. The former is derived in accordance with quasi-harmonic approximation. The latter is given semi-empirically. Application to multiphase equations of state for β-, γ- and liquid-tin has been examined. The theoretical phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of isotherm, thermal expansion, heat capacity, Hugoniot states as well as phase transitions are all in excellent agreement with experiments.