Anharmonic lattice dynamics and thermal transport in type-I inorganic clathrates

The anharmonic phonon properties of type-I filled inorganic clathrates Ba8Ga16Ge30 and Sr8Ga16Ge30 are obtained from the first-principles calculations by considering the temperature-dependent sampling of the potential energy surface and quartic phonon renormalization. Owing to the weak binding of guest atoms with the host lattice, the obtained guest modes undergo strong renormalization with temperature and become stiffer by up to 50% at room temperature in Sr8Ga16Ge30. The calculated phonon frequencies and associated thermal mean squared displace- ments are comparable with experiments despite the on-centering of guest atoms at cage centers in both clathrates. Lattice thermal conductivities are obtained in the temperature range of 50- 300 K accounting for three-phonon scattering processes and multi-channel thermal transport. The contribution of coherent transport channel is significant at room temperature (13% and 22% in Ba8Ga16Ge30 and Sr8Ga16Ge30) but is insufficient to explain the experimentally observed glass-like thermal transport in Sr8Ga16Ge30.

Violation of the T−1 Relationship in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Mg3Sb2 with Locally Asymmetric Vibrations

Most crystalline materials follow the guidelines of T−1 temperature-dependent lattice thermal conductivity (κL) at elevated temperatures. Here, we observe a weak temperature dependence of κL in Mg3Sb2, T−0.48 from theory and T−0.57 from measurements, based on a comprehensive study combining ab initio molecular dynamics calculations and experimental measurements on single crystal Mg3Sb2. These results can be understood in terms of the so-called “phonon renormalization” effects due to the strong temperature dependence of the interatomic force constants (IFCs). The increasing temperature leads to the frequency upshifting for those low-frequency phonons dominating heat transport, and more importantly, the phonon-phonon interactions are weakened. In-depth analysis reveals that the phenomenon is closely related to the temperature-induced asymmetric movements of Mg atoms within MgSb4 tetrahedron. With increasing temperature, these Mg atoms tend to locate at the areas with relatively low force in the force profile, leading to reduced effective 3rd-order IFCs. The locally asymmetrical atomic movements at elevated temperatures can be further treated as an indicator of temperature-induced variations of IFCs and thus relatively strong phonon renormalization. The present work sheds light on the fundamental origins of anomalous temperature dependence of κL in thermoelectrics.