Pressure dependence of elastic behaviour and force constants of GaP

The six third order elastic constants of GaP have been obtained from measurements of the effect of hydrostatic and uniaxial pressures on ultrasonic wave velocities. The valence force field model has been used to obtain the bond-bending and stretching force constants. Confirmatory evidence is added to the hypotheses that zinc blende structure crystals undergo the densification transition under pressure when (1) a modified Born stability criterion that $\text{1}\text{2}\text{(C}{}_{11}\text{? C}{}_{12}\text{)}\text{B}$ equals about 0.2 is reached at the phase transition pressure P_t, and (2) the ratio $\text{β}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{α}{}_{\mathrm{t}}$ of the second order bond-bending β_t to bond-stretching α_t, force constants is about 0.1. These findings suggest that a macroscopic shear takes place at the transition