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When Does a Crystal Conduct Heat Like a Glass?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

B. C. Sales ,
B. C. Chakoumakos ,
V. Keppens ,
R. Jin ,
D. Mandrus  and
J. R. Thompson
B. C. Sales
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056
B. C. Chakoumakos
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056
V. Keppens
Affiliation:
National Center for Physical Acoustics, The University of Mississippi Oxford, Mississippi 38677
R. Jin
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056
D. Mandrus
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056
J. R. Thompson
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6056
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Abstract

Semiconducting crystalline materials that are poor conductors of heat are important as thermoelectric materials and for technological applications involving thermal management. In the present article neutron scattering, electrical and thermal transport, heat capacity, magnetic and acoustic measurements are reported on single crystals of three semiconductors with the type I clathrate structure: Ba8Ga16Ge30, Sr8Ga16Ge30 and Eu8Ga16Ge30. Taken together these measurements suggest specific structural features that result in a crystal with the lowest possible thermal conductivity, namely that of a glass with the same chemical composition. Weakly bound atoms that rattle within oversized atomic cages in a crystal result in a low thermal conductivity, but the present data show that both rattling atoms and tunneling states are necessary to produce a true glass-like thermal conductivity.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 691: Symposium G – Thermoelectric Materials 2001--Research and Applications , 2001 , G7.2
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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References

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