The anharmonic phonon properties of SnSe in the Pnma phase were investigated with a combination of experiments and first-principles simulations. Using inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS), we have measured the phonon dispersions and density of states (DOS) and their temperature dependence, which revealed a strong, inhomogeneous shift and broadening of the spectrum on warming. First-principles simulations were performed to rationalize these measurements, and to explain the previously reported anisotropic thermal expansion, in particular the negative thermal expansion within the Sn-Se bilayers. Including the anisotropic strain dependence of the phonon free energy, in addition to the electronic ground state energy, is essential to reproduce the negative thermal expansion. From the phonon DOS obtained with INS and additional calorimetry measurements, we quantify the harmonic, dilational, and anharmonic components of the phonon entropy, heat capacity, and free energy. The origin of the anharmonic phonon thermodynamics is linked to the electronic structure.
SnS and SnSe are isoelectronic materials with a common phase diagram. Recently, SnSe was found to be the most efficient intrinsic thermoelectric material in its high-temperature Cmcm phase above 800 K. Making use of first-principles calculations, here we show that the electronic and vibrational properties of both materials are very similar in this phase and, consequently, SnS is also expected to have a high thermoelectric figure of merit at high temperature in its Cmcm phase. In fact, the electronic power factor and lattice thermal conductivity are comparable for both materials, which ensures …
The evolution of the optical phonons in layered semiconductor alloys SnSe1-xSx is studied as a function of the composition by using polarized Raman spectroscopy with six different excitation wavelengths (784.8, 632.8, 532, 514.5, 488, and 441.6 nm). The polarization dependences of the phonon modes are compared with transmission electron diffraction measurements to determine the crystallographic orientation of the samples. Some of the Raman modes show significant variation in their polarization behavior depending on the excitation wavelengths. It is established that the maximum intensity direct…
SnSe is a layered material that currently holds the record for bulk thermoelectric efficiency. The primary determinant of this high efficiency is thought to be the anomalously low thermal conductivity resulting from strong anharmonic coupling within the phonon system. Here we show that the nature of the carrier system in SnSe is also determined by strong coupling to phonons by directly visualizing polaron formation in the material. We employ ultrafast electron diffraction and diffuse scattering to track the response of phonons in both momentum and time to the photodoping of free carriers acros…
To gain insight into the peculiar temperature dependence of the thermoelectric material SnSe, we employ many-body perturbation theory and explore the influence of the electron-phonon interaction on its electronic and transport properties. We show that a lattice dynamics characterized by soft highly-polar phonons induces a large thermal enhancement of the Fröhlich interaction. We account for these phenomena in ab-initio calculations of the photoemission spectrum and electrical conductivity at finite temperature, unraveling the mechanisms behind recent experimental data. Our results reveal a com…
Recent studies on different topological materials in condensed matter physics have provided the evidence of topological nature for bosonic particle like phonons by performing various theoretical calculations and experimental observations. Here, the topological behaviours of phonons of SnS, SnSe and SnTe materials in rock-salt structure are investigated using $ab$-$initio$ methodology. For all these materials, the tilted linear band touching is observed along with the presence of band inversion in direction X-W. The topological point in phonon dispersion curve along X-W direction is found to be…
Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials have extraordinary thermal properties due to the effect of quantum confinement, making them promising for thermoelectric energy conversion and thermal management in microelectronic devices. In this review, the mechanism of phonon anharmonicity originating from three- and four-phonon interactions is derived. The phonon anharmonicity of 2D vdW materials, involving the Grüneisen parameter, phonon lifetime, and thermal conductivity, is summarized and derived in detail. The size-dependent thermal conductivity of representative 2D vdW materials is d…
Anharmonic lattice vibrations govern the thermal dynamics in materials and present how the atoms interact and how they conduct heat. An indepth understanding of the microscopic mechanism of phonon anharmonicity in condensed systems is critical for developing better functional and energy materials. In recent years, a variety of novel behaviors in condense matters are driven by phonon anharmonic effects in some way or another, such as soft mode phase transition, negative thermal expansion, multiferroicity, ultralow thermal conductivity or high thermal resistance, and high-temperature superconduc…
Identifying and understanding the mechanisms behind strong phonon-phonon scattering in condensed matter systems is critical to maximizing the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. To date, the leading method to address this has been to meticulously survey the full phonon dispersion of the material in order to isolate modes with anomalously large linewidth and temperature-dependence. Here we combine quantitative MeV ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) analysis with Monte Carlo based dynamic diffraction simulation and first-principles calculations to directly unveil the soft, anharmonic lattice…
Both SnS and SnSe have been experimentally and theoretically confirmed as topological crystalline insulators in native rocksalt structure. Here, phononic structure, thermodynamical properties and temperature dependent electron-phonon interaction (EPI) have investigated for both the materials in rocksalt phase. Previously performed theoretical studies have predicted the phase instability of SnS in this crystal structure at ambient condition. But, after a detailed study performing on the phonon calculation of SnS, we have predicted the phase stability of SnS with considering the Sn 4$p$ orbitals…
Opposite impact of thermal expansion and phonon anharmonicity on the phonon-limited resistivity of elemental metals from first principles
European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Université catholique de Louvain（欧洲理论光谱设施，凝聚态物质与纳米科学研究所，天主教鲁汶大学）；Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK Research and Innovation, Daresbury Laboratory（科学与工程设施理事会英国研究与创新达尔斯伯里实验室科学计算部）；Département de Physique et Institut Courtois, Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学物理系与库瓦托瓦研究所）；Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science, Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所分子化学与材料科学系）；WEL Research Institute（WEL研究所）
First-principles calculations of phonon frequencies, lifetimes and spectral functions from weak to strong anharmonicity: the example of palladium hydrides
Investigating the competition between ferroelectric ordering and quantum fluctuations is essential to tailor the desired functionalities of mixed ferroelectric and incipient ferroelectric systems, like, (Ba,Sr)TiO3 and (Eu,Ba)TiO3. Recently, it has been shown that suppression of quantum fluctuations increases ferroelectric ordering in (Eu,Ba)TiO3 and since these phenomena are coupled to crystallographic phase transitions it is essential to understand the role of phonons. Here, we observe that the unusual temperature dependence of phonons in BaTiO3 gets suppressed when Ba2+ is replaced by Eu2+.…
The microscopic origin of the large negative thermal expansion of cubic scandium trifluorides (ScF3) is investigated by performing a set of anharmonic free-energy calculations based on density functional theory. We demonstrate that the conventional quasiharmonic approximation (QHA) completely breaks down for ScF3 and the quartic anharmonicity, treated nonperturbatively by the self-consistent phonon theory, is essential to reproduce the observed transition from negative to positive thermal expansivity and the hardening of the R4+ soft mode with heating. In addition, we show that the contributio…
The tin-selenide and tin-sulfide classes of materials undergo multiple structural transitions under high pressure leading to periodic lattice distortions, superconductivity, and topologically non-trivial phases, yet a number of controversies exist regarding the structural transformations in these systems. We perform first-principles calculations within the framework of density functional theory and a careful comparison of our results with available experiments on SnSe$_2$ reveals that the apparent contradictions among high-pressure results can be attributed to differences in experimental condi…
Materials with ultralow thermal conductivity are of great interest for efficient energy conversion and thermal barrier coating. Copper-based semiconductors such as copper chalcogenides and copper halides are known to possess extreme low thermal conductivity, whereas the fundamental origin of the low thermal conductivity observed in the copper-based materials remains elusive. Here, we reveal that s-d coupling induced giant phonon anharmonicity is the fundamental mechanism responsible for the ultralow thermal conductivity of copper compounds. The symmetry controlled strong coupling of high-lying…
In this work, we performed temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy studies on three layered metal thiophosphates: CuInP2S6, CuCrP2S6, and CuInP2S6-In4/3P2S6 heterostructures. These materials are emerging multiferroics, with CuInP2S6 and CuInP2S6-In4/3P2S6 exhibiting room temperature ferrielectric polarization while CuCrP2S6 is both anti-ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic at low temperatures (<145 and <30 K, respectively). We studied two prominent peaks in the Raman spectra of these compounds, namely their P-P and P-S stretching modes. First order linear fits to the mode softening yielded coe…
Motivated by the excellent electronic and optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) tin oxides, we systematically investigated the thermal conductivity of monolayer SnO and SnO2by the first-principles calculations. The room-temperature thermal conductivity of monolayer SnO and SnO2reaches 9.6 W/(mK) and 98.8 W/(mK), respectively. The size effect is much weaker for monolayer SnO than for monolayer SnO2, due to the coexistence of size dependent and independent component in the thermal conductivity of monolayer SnO. The large difference between the thermal conductivity of 2D tin oxides ca…
The thermal properties of materials are critically important to various technologies and are increasingly the target of materials design efforts. However, it is only relatively recent advances in first-principles computational techniques that have enabled researchers to explore the microscopic mechanisms of thermal properties, such as thermal expansion. We use the Grüneisen theory of thermal expansion in combination with density functional calculations and the quasiharmonic approximation to uncover mechanisms of thermal expansion in PbTiO$_3$ thin-films in terms of elastic and vibrational cont…
We devise a framework to compute accurate phonons in molecular crystals even in case of strong quantum anharmonicity. Our approach is based on the calculation of the static limit of the phononic Matsubara Green's function from path integral molecular dynamics simulations. Our method enjoys a remarkably low variance, which allows one to compute accurate phonon frequencies after a few picoseconds of nuclear dynamics, and it is further stabilized by the use of appropriate constrained displacement operators. We applied it to solid hydrogen at high pressure. For phase III, our predicted infrared (I…
Anharmonic Phonon Renormalization and Defect Tolerance of the Thermoelectric Power Factor in Monolayer SnSe
Faculty of Physics and Physics Engineering, University of Science（物理与物理工程学院，科学大学）；Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City（越南国立大学胡志明市分校）；Advanced Materials Technology Institute Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City（先进材料技术研究所，越南国立大学胡志明市分校）；University of Health Sciences (UHS), Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City（卫生科学学院（UHS），越南国立大学胡志明市分校）；Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University（前沿跨学科学研究院，东北大学）
Knowledge of lattice anharmonicity is essential to elucidate distinctive thermal properties in crystalline solids. Yet, accurate \textit{ab initio} investigations of lattice anharmonicity encounter difficulties owing to the cumbersome computations. Here we introduce the phonon quasiparticle approach and review its application to various materials. This method efficiently and reliably addresses lattice anharmonicity by combining \textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics and lattice dynamics calculations. Thus, in principle, it accounts for full anharmonic effects and overcomes finite-size effects t…
We have carried out temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction and Raman scattering experiments on powder $Cs_3Bi_2Br_9$. Trigonal to monoclinic structural transition at around 95 K is discussed and shown to be driven by the softening of the soft mode. We propose a model to describe the dynamics of the incomplete soft-mode. Raman scattering experiments demonstrate the origin of the soft mode to the rocking motions of Br atoms that participate to form $BiBr_6$ octahedra, which correlates the reported theoretical calculations. Some of the Raman mode frequencies exhibit anomalous temperature depende…
All phonons in a single crystal of NaBr were measured by inelastic neutron scattering at temperatures of 10, 300 and 700 K. Even at 300 K the phonons, especially the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons, showed large shifts in frequencies, and showed large broadenings in energy owing to anharmonicity. Ab initio computations were first performed with the quasiharmonic approximation (QHA), in which the phonon frequencies depend only on $V$, and on $T$ only insofar as it alters $V$ by thermal expansion. This QHA was an unqualified failure for predicting the temperature dependence of phonon frequenci…
Excellent thermoelectric performance in the out-of-layer n-doped SnSe has been observed experimentally (Chang et al., Science 360, 778-783 (2018)). However, a first-principles investigation of the dominant scattering mechanisms governing all thermoelectric transport properties is lacking. In the present work, by applying extensive first-principles calculations of electron-phonon coupling associated with the calculation of the scattering by ionized impurities, we investigate the reasons behind the superior figure of merit as well as the enhancement of zT above 600 K in n-doped out-of-layer SnSe…
Graphene+, a novel carbon monolayer with sp2-sp3 hybridization, is recently reported to exhibit graphene-like Dirac properties and unprecedented out-of-plane half-auxetic behavior [Yu et al, Cell Reports Physical Science, 3 100790 (2022)]. Herein, from comprehensively state-of-the-art first-principles studies, we report the exceptional lattice thermal transport properties of graphene+ driven by the unique sp2-sp3 crystal configuration. At room temperature, the thermal conductivity of graphene+ is calculated to be ~170 W/mK, which is much lower than that of graphene (~3170 W/mK) Despite the buc…
Roadmap for electronic structure, anharmonicity, and electron-phonon calculations in locally disordered inorganic and hybrid halide perovskites
Univ Rennes, INSA Rennes, CNRS, Institut FOTON - UMR 6082（雷恩大学，雷恩国立应用科学学院，法国国家科学研究中心，FOTON研究所）；Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center, The Cyprus Institute（塞浦路斯研究院计算科学与技术研究中心）；Univ Rennes, ENSCR, INSA Rennes, CNRS, ISCR - UMR 6226（雷恩大学，雷恩高等师范学院，雷恩国立应用科学学院，法国国家科学研究中心，ISCR研究所）；Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校奥登计算工程与科学学院）；Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校物理系）
Broadband phonon-velocity suppression and a finite anisotropic crossover in twisted bilayer SnSe
Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）；Tianmushan Laboratory, Beihang University（天目山实验室）；Center for Bioinspired Science and Technology, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University（杭州国际创新学院仿生科学与技术中心）
Interfacial thermal transport is critical for many thermal-related applications such as heat dissipation in electronics. While the total interfacial thermal conductance (ITC) can be easily measured or calculated, the ITC spectral mapping has been investigated only recently and is not fully understood. By combining nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and atomistic Green's function method, we systematically investigate the ITC spectrum across an ideal interface, i.e., the argon-heavy argon interface. Our results show that the ITC spectrum increases gradually with temperature as more ph…
The lead-free halide double perovskite class of materials offers a promising venue for resolving issues related to toxicity of Pb and long-term stability of the lead-containing halide perovskites. We present a first-principles study of the lattice vibrations in Cs$_2$AgBiBr$_6$ , the prototypical compound in this class, and show that the lattice dynamics of Cs$_2$AgBiBr$_6$ is highly anharmonic, largely in regards to tilting of AgBr$_6$ and BiBr$_6$ octahedra. Using an energy and temperature dependent phonon spectral function, we then show how the experimentally observed cubic-to-tetragonal ph…
In this work we explore the phase diagram of the binary Nb-S system from ambient pressures up to 250 GPa using $ab$ $initio$ evolutionary crystal structure prediction. We find several new stable compositions and phases, especially in the high-pressure regime, and investigate their electronic, vibrational, and superconducting properties. Our calculations show that all materials, besides the low-pressure phases of pure sulfur, are metals with low electron-phonon coupling strengths and critical superconducting temperatures below 15 K. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of phonon anharmonicit…
Anharmonicity Driven by Vacancy Ordering Unlocks High-performance Thermoelectric Conversion in Defective Chalcopyrites II-III$_2$-VI$_4$
Ningbo University（宁波大学）；University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)（巴斯克大学）；Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM-MPC), CSIC-UPV/EHU（材料物理中心（CFM-MPC），西班牙国家研究委员会-巴斯克大学）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Dartmouth College（达特茅斯学院）；Technical University of Darmstadt（达姆施塔特工业大学）；Technische Universität Wien（维也纳工业大学）；Linköping University（林雪平大学）；Suzhou Laboratory（苏州实验室）；Gusu Laboratory of Materials（姑苏材料实验室）
