2014/10/31 by Zhun-Yong Ong, Zhun‐Yong Ong, Gang Zhang
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Condensed matter physics #Crossover #Lambda #Lattice (music) #Materials science #Phonon #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermal conduction #Thermal properties of materials #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.90.155459
published as Phys. Rev. B 90, 155459 (2014) · 9 pages, 6 figures
openalex publication_date 2014/10/31 · arxiv created 2014/12/10 · arxiv updated 2014/12/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Short-range order in strongly disordered structures plays an important role in their heat conduction property. Using numerical and analytical methods, we show that short-range spatial correlation (with a correlation length of \ensuremathΛm) in the mass distribution of the one-dimensional (1D) alloylike random binary lattice leads to a dramatic enhancement of the high-frequency phonon transmittance but also increases the low-frequency phonon opacity. High-frequency semiextended states are formed while low-frequency modes become more localized. This results in ballistic heat conduction at finite lengths but also paradoxically higher thermal resistance that scales as √\ensuremathΛm in the L\ensuremath→\ensuremath∞ limit. We identify an emergent crossover length (Lc) below which the onset of thermal transparency appears. The crossover length is linearly dependent on but is two orders of magnitude larger than \ensuremathΛm. Our results suggest that the phonon transmittance spectrum and heat conduction in a disordered 1D lattice can be controlled via statistical clustering of the constituent component atoms into domains. They also imply that the detection of ballistic heat conduction in disordered 1D structures may be a signature of the intrinsic mass correlation at a much smaller length scale.