Reversible Modulation of Thermal Conductivity in GaN through Strain-Field Screening around Dislocations
Crystalline defects are generally regarded as static phonon scatterers that irreversibly suppress thermal transport. Here we show that elastic strain can reversibly modify dislocation-associated strain fields and strongly alter heat conduction. Using in situ strain-dependent time-domain thermoreflectance measurements, we observe a reversible enhancement of thermal conductivity in GaN by 23% under only 0.21% uniaxial strain. High-resolution X-ray diffraction reveals progressive narrowing of the symmetric (0002) reflection, indicating a reduction in the distribution of lattice rotations and heterogeneous strain. High-resolution electron backscatter diffraction directly shows that the spatial autocorrelations of multiple strain components decay over progressively shorter distances with applied strain, providing real-space evidence for enhanced screening of long-range strain fields. Raman spectroscopy further shows a non-monotonic evolution of the $E_{2}^{\mathrm{high}}$ phonon linewidth near the onset of the thermal-conductivity increase. Together, these results support a picture in which elastic strain reversibly reconfigures pinned dislocation lines and shortens the spatial range of their heterogeneous strain fields, thereby reducing phonon scattering. Our work establishes defect-associated strain correlations as a tunable degree of freedom for controlling thermal transport in crystalline solids.