Selective Phonon Stimulation Mechanism to Tune Thermal Transport.

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we determine the degree to which changes can be induced in the equilibrium thermal diffusivity and conductivity of a material via a selective nonequilibrium infrared stimulation mechanism for phonons. Using the molecular crystal RDX, we use detailed momentum-dependent coupling information across the entire Brillouin zone and the phonon gas model to show that stimulating selected modes in the spectrum of a target material can induce substantial changes in the overall thermal transport properties. Specifically in the case of RDX, stimulating modes at ∼22.74 cm^-1 over a linewidth of 1 cm^-1 can lead to enhanced scattering rates that reduce the overall thermal diffusivity and conductivity by 15.58 and 12.46%, respectively, from their equilibrium values. Due to the rich spectral content in the materials, however, stimulating modes near ∼1140.67 cm^-1 over a similar bandwidth can produce an increase in the thermal diffusivity and conductivity by 55.73 and 144.07%, respectively. The large changes suggest a mechanism to evoke substantially modulated thermal transport properties through light-matter interaction.

SUBMITTER: Kumar G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9026079 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature