Abstract
As representative semiconducting hexagonal carbon-boron-nitride lattices, and are experimentally realized two-dimensional (2D) plane materials and have recently become the focus of research. Herein, combining first-principles calculations with the Boltzmann transport equation, we performed a comprehensive study on the phonon interaction and thermal conductivity in and monolayers. It is found that the thermal conductivities of and monolayers at room temperature are reduced by 79% and 73%, respectively, due to four-phonon scattering, compared with the results including three-phonon scattering only. We can attribute this phenomenon to giant four-phonon scattering exclusive for the heat-carrying out-of-plane acoustic (ZA) phonons, because the reflection symmetry allows four-ZA processes much higher than three-ZA processes, and the quasiparallel behavior between the ZA and low-lying out-of-plane optical (ZO) branches contribute to a broad phase space for four-phonon scattering as well. Moreover, monolayer exhibits unusual behavior that optical phonons contribute about ∼60% to the overall thermal conductivity under the four-phonon picture, which differs from the traditional case that acoustic phonons dominate thermal conductivity. Unexpectedly, two low-lying ZO modes have as high as 38% contributions to the thermal transport at 300 K under the four-phonon picture, causing 60% contribution of optical phonon modes, apparently larger than that of the three-phonon case (15%) and many other 2D materials, also indicating the four-phonon scattering has a more significant effect on acoustic phonons than on optical phonons. This finding not only highlights insight into the nature of phonon transport, but also provides a promising strategy for manipulation of heat transport based on optical phonon modes.
- Received 21 August 2023
- Revised 1 November 2023
- Accepted 14 November 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.108.235420
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