Domain-wall driven suppression of thermal conductivity in a ferroelectric polycrystal

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Belrhiti-Nejjar, Rachid, Zahn, Manuel, Limelette, Patrice, Haas, Max, Féger, Lucile, Monot-Laffez, Isabelle, Horny, Nicolas, Meier, Dennis, Giovannelli, Fabien, Schultheiß, Jan, Nataf, Guillaume F.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Belrhiti-Nejjar, Rachid
Zahn, Manuel
Limelette, Patrice
Haas, Max
Féger, Lucile
Monot-Laffez, Isabelle
Horny, Nicolas
Meier, Dennis
Giovannelli, Fabien
Schultheiß, Jan
Nataf, Guillaume F.
author_facet Belrhiti-Nejjar, Rachid
Zahn, Manuel
Limelette, Patrice
Haas, Max
Féger, Lucile
Monot-Laffez, Isabelle
Horny, Nicolas
Meier, Dennis
Giovannelli, Fabien
Schultheiß, Jan
Nataf, Guillaume F.
contents A common strategy for reducing thermal conductivity of polycrystalline systems is to increase the number of grain boundaries. Indeed, grain boundaries enhance the probability of phonon scattering events, which has been applied to control the thermal transport in a wide range of materials, including hard metals, diamond, oxides and 2D systems such as graphene. Here, we report the opposite behavior in improper ferroelectric ErMnO3 polycrystals, where the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing grain size. We attribute this unusual relationship between heat transport and microstructure to phonon scattering at ferroelectric domain walls. The domain walls are more densely packed in larger grains, leading to an inversion of the classical grain-boundary-dominated transport behavior. Our findings open additional avenues for microstructural engineering of materials for thermoelectric and thermal management applications, enabling simultaneous control over mechanical, electronic, and thermal properties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_15708
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Domain-wall driven suppression of thermal conductivity in a ferroelectric polycrystal
Belrhiti-Nejjar, Rachid
Zahn, Manuel
Limelette, Patrice
Haas, Max
Féger, Lucile
Monot-Laffez, Isabelle
Horny, Nicolas
Meier, Dennis
Giovannelli, Fabien
Schultheiß, Jan
Nataf, Guillaume F.
Materials Science
A common strategy for reducing thermal conductivity of polycrystalline systems is to increase the number of grain boundaries. Indeed, grain boundaries enhance the probability of phonon scattering events, which has been applied to control the thermal transport in a wide range of materials, including hard metals, diamond, oxides and 2D systems such as graphene. Here, we report the opposite behavior in improper ferroelectric ErMnO3 polycrystals, where the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing grain size. We attribute this unusual relationship between heat transport and microstructure to phonon scattering at ferroelectric domain walls. The domain walls are more densely packed in larger grains, leading to an inversion of the classical grain-boundary-dominated transport behavior. Our findings open additional avenues for microstructural engineering of materials for thermoelectric and thermal management applications, enabling simultaneous control over mechanical, electronic, and thermal properties.
title Domain-wall driven suppression of thermal conductivity in a ferroelectric polycrystal
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15708