The origin of the lattice thermal conductivity enhancement at the ferroelectric phase transition in GeTe

Abstract The proximity to structural phase transitions in IV-VI thermoelectric materials is one of the main reasons for their large phonon anharmonicity and intrinsically low lattice thermal conductivity κ. However, the κ of GeTe increases at the ferroelectric phase transition near 700 K. Using firs...

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Autores principales: Đorđe Dangić, Olle Hellman, Stephen Fahy, Ivana Savić
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/67dbfa3c7c8a47f2869661a88dbccbac
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Sumario:Abstract The proximity to structural phase transitions in IV-VI thermoelectric materials is one of the main reasons for their large phonon anharmonicity and intrinsically low lattice thermal conductivity κ. However, the κ of GeTe increases at the ferroelectric phase transition near 700 K. Using first-principles calculations with the temperature dependent effective potential method, we show that this rise in κ is the consequence of negative thermal expansion in the rhombohedral phase and increase in the phonon lifetimes in the high-symmetry phase. Strong anharmonicity near the phase transition induces non-Lorentzian shapes of the phonon power spectra. To account for these effects, we implement a method of calculating κ based on the Green-Kubo approach and find that the Boltzmann transport equation underestimates κ near the phase transition. Our findings elucidate the influence of structural phase transitions on κ and provide guidance for design of better thermoelectric materials.