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arXiv · 1412.5723

Impact of Rattlers on Thermal Conductivity of a Thermoelectric Clathrate: A First-Principles Study

Terumasa Tadano·Yoshihiro Gohda·Shinji Tsuneyuki
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Abstract

We investigate the role of rattling guest atoms on the lattice thermal-conductivity of a type-I clathrate Ba$_{8}$Ga$_{16}$Ge$_{30}$ by first-principles lattice dynamics. Comparing phonon properties of filled and empty clathrates, we show that rattlers cause 10-fold reductions in the relaxation time of phonons by increasing the phonon-phonon scattering probability. Contrary to the resonant scattering scenario, the reduction in the relaxation time occurs in a wide frequency range, which is crucial for explaining unusually low thermal-conductivities of clathrates. We also find that the impact of rattlers on the group velocity of phonons is secondary because the flattening of phonon dispersion occurs only in a limited phase space in the Brillouin zone.

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Terumasa Tadano, Yoshihiro Gohda, Shinji Tsuneyuki. 2015-01-25. Impact of Rattlers on Thermal Conductivity of a Thermoelectric Clathrate: A First-Principles Study. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.114.095501

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