Four-phonon scattering significantly reduces intrinsic thermal conductivity of solids

For decades, the three-phonon scattering process has been considered to govern thermal transport in solids, while the role of higher-order four-phonon scattering has been persistently unclear and so ignored. However, recent quantitative calculations of three-phonon scattering have often shown a significant overestimation of thermal conductivity as compared to experimental values. In this Rapid Communication we show that four-phonon scattering is generally important in solids and can remedy such discrepancies. For silicon and diamond, the predicted thermal conductivity is reduced by 30% at 1000 K after including four-phonon scattering, bringing predictions in excellent agreement with measurements. For the…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1150948
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  Award: HR0011-15-2-0037
• OO
  Office of Science
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences