scholarly journals Asymmetric Character of the Ferroelectric Phase Transition and Charged Domain Walls in a Hybrid Improper Ferroelectric

2021 ◽  
pp. 2100434
Author(s):  
Mads C. Weber ◽  
Yannik Zemp ◽  
Morgan Trassin ◽  
Arkadiy Simonov ◽  
Jakob Schaab ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Đorđe Dangić ◽  
Olle Hellman ◽  
Stephen Fahy ◽  
Ivana Savić

AbstractThe 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.


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