The fractional ionic character of alkali and silver halide crystals is defined in terms of the deviations from the additivity rule for polarizabilities of ions. The electronic polarizabilities of ions are calculated using an empirical relationship according to which the electronic polarizability of an ion can be assumed to be directly proportional to the cube of its radius. The calculated ionicities indicate that the alkali halides are nearly or more than 90% ionic and silver halides are much less ionic which is also evident from the Phillips ionicity scale.

The Pauling’s form for the overlap repulsive energy is used to calculate the sizes of isoelectronic divalent ions in MgO, CaS, SrSe and BaTe crystals by minimising the next nearest neighbour repulsive interaction. The radii calculated by this method differ significantly from the conventional sets of ionic radii in a consistent way, being larger for cations and smaller for anions. The polarizability-radius cube relation is also utilized to calculate the electronic polarizabilities of ions. The electronic polarizabilities, thus obtained agree with the values determined from the refractivity measurements.

The dependence of the Born repulsive parameters of alkali halides on elastic and dielectric data has been discussed. The values of hardness parameter in alkali halides have been recalculated using the revised values of van der Waals energies. It is observed that the two sets of hardness parameter corresponding to elastic and dielectric data differ from each other but become compatible if an effective charge parameter for the ions is introduced. Its usefulness has been demonstrated by calculating the strain derivative of static dielectric constant of alkali halides.

The electronic polarizabilities of ions in alkaline earth chalcogenides are estimated by taking account of the effect of the crystalline potential. The polarizabilities thus obtained are found to present a good agreement with experimental data. It has been shown that the polarizabilities and radii of alkaline earth and chalcogenide ions follow the polarizability-radius cube relation approximately well.

The optic mode Gruneisen parameters in silver, caesium and thallium halides are calculated using the Born model for interionic forces and the Szigeti theory of dielectric constants. The strain derivatives of the electronic and static dielectric constants are also evaluated and compared with experimental data. The strain derivative of static dielectric constant reveals the inadequacy of the Born model for the crystals under study. Possible modifications have been suggested to improve the situation. The theoretical values of the optic mode Gruneisen parameters closely agree with recent experimental data. An appropriate process has been adopted to evaluate the average values for the Gruneisen parameter.

An interionic force model has been used in which the short range nearest neighbour and the next nearest neighbour repulsive interactions and the van der Waals’ interactions are balanced by the long range electrostatic forces. The nearest neighbour and the next nearest neighbour interactions are derived from the overlap integrals for outer shell electrons. The van der Waals’ interactions are estimated from the Slater-Kirkwood variational method. The cohesive energy, the bulk modulus and its pressure dependence for AgF, AgCl and AgBr crystals have been calculated and compared with experimental data.