The Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of arsenic,antimony and bismuth

The orientational dependences of the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio of the A7 structure elements arsenic, antimony, and bismuth are investigated, using available experimental data of the six elastic compliance constants. The behaviour of these technical elastic constants in antimony and bismuth is shown to differ not only in degree but also in kind from that of arsenic, which exhibits the characteristics expected of a layer-like crystal; arsenic is elastically a very anisotropic material, its Young's modulus varies by a factor as large as 11.3: the largest anisotropy ratio reported for a metallic element.