Phonon-induced diamagnetic force and its effect on the lattice thermal conductivity
Source abstract
Abstract
Phonons are displacements of atoms around their rest positions in a crystalline solid. They carry sound and heat, but are not classically associated with magnetism. Here, we show that phonons are, in fact, sensitive to magnetic fields, even in diamagnetic materials. We do so by demonstrating experimentally that acoustic phonons in a diamagnetic semiconductor (InSb) scatter more strongly from one another when a magnetic field is applied. We attribute this observation to the magnetic-field sensitivity of the anharmonicity of the interatomic bonds that govern the probability of phonon-phonon interactions. The displacements of atoms locally affect the orbital motion of valence band electrons, which, in the presence of an external magnetic field, spatially modulates the orbital diamagnetism around the displaced atoms. The spatial gradient in magnetic moment results in an anharmonic magnetic force exerted on the displaced atom. The process is modelled by ab initio calculations that, without the use of a single adjustable parameter, reproduce the observed 12% decrease in the lattice thermal conductivity under a 7 T magnetic field at a temperature of 5.2 K.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices · Thermal properties of materials · Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (26)
Show source-provided references
1. Harman, T. C. & Honig, J. M. Thermoelectric and Thermomagnetic Effects and Applications (McGraw-Hill, 1967).
2. Boona, S. R., Myers, T. C. & Heremans, J. P. Spin caloritronics. Energy Environ. Sci. 7, 885–910 (2014).10.1039/c3ee43299h ↗
3. Onose, Y. et al. Observation of the magnon Hall effect. Science 329, 297–299 (2010).10.1126/science.1188260 ↗
4. Strohm, C., Rikken, G. L. J. A. & Wyder, P. Phenomenological evidence for the phonon Hall effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 155901 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.155901 ↗
5. Morton, I. P. & Rosenberg, H. M. Scattering of phonons by spins at low temperatures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 8, 200–201 (1962).10.1103/PhysRevLett.8.200 ↗
6. Zhao, L-D. et al. Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in SnSe crystals. Nature 508, 373–377 (2014).10.1038/nature13184 ↗
7. Heremans, J. P. The ugly duckling. Nature 508, 327–328 (2014).10.1038/508327a ↗
8. Nielsen, M. D., Ozolins, V. & Heremans, J. P. Lone pair electrons minimize lattice thermal conductivity. Energy Environ. Sci. 6, 570–578 (2013).10.1039/C2EE23391F ↗
9. Geballe, T. H. & Hull, G. W. in Conference de physique des basses temperatures, Institut international du froid, Paris 460–463 (1955).
10. Issi, J-P., Michenaud, J-P. & Heremans, J. P. in Thermal Conductivity 14 (eds Klemens, P. G. & Chu, T. K.) 127–133 (Conference Proceedings, Plenum Press, 1976).10.1007/978-1-4899-3751-3_22 ↗
11. Berman, R. Thermal Conduction in Solids (Clarendon Press, 1976).
12. Price, D. L., Rowe, J. M. & Nicklow, R. M. Lattice dynamics of grey tin and indium antimonide. Phys. Rev. B 3, 1268–1279 (1971).10.1103/PhysRevB.3.1268 ↗
13. Broido, D. A., Ward, A. & Mingo, N. Lattice thermal conductivity of silicon from empirical interatomic potentials. Phys. Rev. B 72, 014308 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevB.72.014308 ↗
14. Sparks, P. W. & Swenson, C. A. Thermal expansions from 2 to 40 K of Ge, Si, and four III–V compounds. Phys. Rev. 163, 779–790 (1967).10.1103/PhysRev.163.779 ↗
15. Cetas, T. C., Tilford, C. R. & Swenson, C. A. Specific heats of Cu, GaAs, GaSb, InAs, and InSb from 1 to 30 K. Phys. Rev. 174, 835–844 (1968).10.1103/PhysRev.174.835 ↗
16. Puri, S. M. & Geballe, T. H. Phonon drag in n-type InSb. Phys. Rev. 136, A1767–A1774 (1964).10.1103/PhysRev.136.A1767 ↗
17. Hudgen, S., Kastner, M. & Fritzsche, H. Diamagnetic susceptibility of tetrahedral semiconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 33, 1552–1555 (1974).10.1103/PhysRevLett.33.1552 ↗
18. Nolting, W. & Ramakanth, A. Quantum Theory of Magnetism (Springer, 2009).10.1007/978-3-540-85416-6 ↗
19. Olguín, D., Cardona, M. & Cantarero, A. Electron–phonon effects on the direct band gap in semiconductors: LCAO calculations. Solid State Commun. 122, 575–589 (2002).10.1016/S0038-1098(02)00225-9 ↗
20. Dewhurst, J. K. et al. Elk FP-LAPW code, version 2.2.9 (2004); http://elk.sourceforge.net
21. Sharma, S. et al. Comparison of exact-exchange calculations for solids in current-spin-density- and spin-density-functional theory. Phys. Rev. B 76, 100401 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevB.76.100401 ↗
22. Heremans, J., Michenaud, J-P., Shayegan, M. & Dresselhaus, G. Magnetostriction and deformation potentials in graphite. J. Phys. C 14, 3541–3546 (1981).
23. Michenaud, J-P., Heremans, J., Shayegan, M. & Haumont, C. Magnetostriction of bismuth in quantizing magnetic fields. Phys. Rev. B 26, 2552–2559 (1982).10.1103/PhysRevB.26.2552 ↗
24. Souvatzis, P., Eriksson, O. & Katsnelson, M. I. Anomalous thermal expansion in α-titanium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 015901 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.015901 ↗
25. Akgöz, Y. C. & Saunders, G. A Space-time symmetry restrictions on the form of transport tensors: I. Galvanomagnetic effects. J. Phys. C 8, 1387–1396 (1975).10.1088/0022-3727/8/12/010 ↗
26. Hass, M. & Henvis, B. W. Infrared lattice reflection spectra of III–V compound semiconductors. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 23, 1099–1104 (1962).10.1016/0022-3697(62)90127-0 ↗