Low energy excitations in amorphous metals

The low temperature properties of amorphous metals pertinent to the existence of low energy excitations are reviewed. In an introductory section, the currently accepted model for low energy excitations, i.e. the model of two level systems (TLS), is discussed. The treatment of amorphous metals focuses on the specific heat C, thermal conductivity κ, ultrasonic properties and electrical resistivity ?. Measurements of C and κ are often performed on amorphous superconductors in order to exclude the effect of conduction electrons. The TLS density of states and the TLS-phonon coupling in these materials as determined from C and κ respectively are surprisingly close to values for insulating glasses. Ultrasonic experiments carried out mostly on normal amorphous metals reveal a strongly enhanced TLS relaxation rate with respect to insulators. This can be attributed to TLS-electron coupling. The effect of this coupling on ? is uncertain at present. In order to obtain more insight into the microscopic origin of TLS in metallic and insulating glasses some examples of TLS in crystalline disordered solids are discussed. Finally, some formal analogies are drawn between spin glasses and real glasses.     

Ca掺杂对ZnO氧化物热学性能的影响

在密度泛函理论和线性响应的密度泛函微扰理论基础上的第一性原理计算的方法研究了Ca掺杂对纤锌矿结构氧化物ZnO热学参数和热学性能的影响。研究结果表明,Ca掺杂ZnO氧化物晶格a,b,c轴均有所增大;在计算温度区间,纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的晶格热容均随温度升高不断增大;Ca掺杂的ZnO具有较高的晶格热容;纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的晶格热容在最高温度900K分别达到16.5 Cal.mol-1K-1和31.7Cal.mol-1K-1。纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的德拜温度 均随温度升高不断增大,Ca掺杂的ZnO的德拜温度 均高于纯的ZnO。Ca掺杂在ZnO中引入了新的振动模式。Ca掺杂ZnO氧化物应该具有较高的晶格热导率。     

Ca掺杂对ZnO氧化物热学性能的影响

在密度泛函理论和线性响应的密度泛函微扰理论基础上的第一性原理计算的方法研究了Ca掺杂对纤锌矿结构氧化物ZnO热学参数和热学性能的影响。研究结果表明,Ca掺杂ZnO氧化物晶格a,b,c轴均有所增大;在计算温度区间,纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的晶格热容均随温度升高不断增大;Ca掺杂的ZnO具有较高的晶格热容;纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的晶格热容在最高温度900K分别达到16.5 Cal.mol-1K-1和31.7Cal.mol-1K-1。纯的ZnO和Ca掺杂的ZnO的德拜温度 均随温度升高不断增大,Ca掺杂的ZnO的德拜温度 均高于纯的ZnO。Ca掺杂在ZnO中引入了新的振动模式。Ca掺杂ZnO氧化物应该具有较高的晶格热导率。     

Thermal conductivity of quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin-chain materials

We study heat transport in quasi-one-dimensional spin-chain systems by considering the model of one-dimensional bosonic spin excitations interacting with three-dimensional phonons and impurities in the limit of weak spin-lattice coupling and fast spin excitations. A combined effect of the phonon and impurity scatterings yields the following spin-boson thermal conductivity behavior: kappa(s) proportional to T2 at low, kappa(s) proportional to T-1 at intermediate, and kappa(s)= const at higher temperatures. Our results agree well with the existing experimental data for Sr2CuO3. We predict an unusual dependence on the impurity concentration for a number of observables and propose further experiments.     

金属纳米颗粒的热导率

本文使用统计模拟方法对金属纳米颗粒的电子平均自由程进行了计算,并考察了纳米颗粒的晶格比热和声子平均群速度,最后应用动力学理论对纳米颗粒的电子热导率和声子热导率分别进行了求解.研究结果表明:具有相同特征尺寸的方形、球形纳米颗粒的无量纲电子(或声子)平均自由程比较接近.金属纳米颗粒的电子热导率远大于声子热导率;电子、声子热导率随着直径减小呈现降低趋势,而电子热导率的颗粒尺度依赖性比声子热导率更为明显;随着颗粒直径进一步减小,声子热导率与电子热导率趋于同一数量级.当纳米颗粒特征尺寸大于4倍块材电子(或声子)平均自由程,其电子(或声子)热导率的颗粒尺度依赖性将减弱.     

Correlated electrons in a dissipative environment

When a system of correlated electrons is embedded in a dissipative environment, new emergent phenomena might occur due to the interplay of correlation and dissipation. Here we focus on quantum impurity systems with coupling to a bosonic bath. For the theoretical investigation we introduce the bosonic numerical renormalization group method which has been initially set up for the spin-boson model. The role of both correlations and dissipation is described in the context of two-electron transfer systems. We also discuss prospects for the investigation of lattice models of correlated electrons with coupling to a dissipative bath.     

Unraveling the effect of uniaxial strain on thermoelectric properties of Mg_2Si: A density functional theory study

In this work, the effect of uniaxial strain on electronic and thermoelectric properties of magnesium silicide using density functional theory(DFT) and Boltzmann transport equations has been studied. We have found that the value of band gap increases with tensile strain and decreases with compressive strain. The variations of electrical conductivity,Seebeck coefficient, electronic thermal conductivity, and power factor with temperatures have been calculated. The Seebeck coefficient and power factor are observed to be modified strongly with strain. The value of power factor is found to be higher in comparison with the unstrained structure at 2% tensile strain. We have also calculated phonon dispersion, phonon density of states, specific heat at constant volume, and lattice thermal conductivity of material under uniaxial strain. The phonon properties and lattice thermal conductivity of Mg_2Si under uniaxial strain have been explored first time in this report.     

Thermal properties of carbon nanotubes and nanotube-based materials

The thermal properties of carbon nanotubes are directly related to their unique structure and small size. Because of these properties, nanotubes may prove to be an ideal material for the study of low-dimensional phonon physics, and for thermal management, both on the macro- and the micro-scale. We have begun to explore the thermal properties of nanotubes by measuring the specific heat and thermal conductivity of bulk SWNT samples. In addition, we have synthesized nanotube-based composite materials and measured their thermal conductivity. The measured specific heat of single-walled nanotubes differs from that of both 2D graphene and 3D graphite, especially at low temperatures, where 1D quantization of the phonon bandstructure is observed. The measured specific heat shows only weak effects of intertube coupling in nanotube bundling, suggesting that this coupling is weaker than expected. The thermal conductivity of nanotubes is large, even in bulk samples: aligned bundles of SWNTs show a thermal conductivity of >200 W/m K at room temperature. A linear K(T) up to approximately 40 K may be due to 1D quantization; measurement of K(T) of samples with different average nanotube diameters supports this interpretation. Nanotube–epoxy blends show significantly enhanced thermal conductivity, showing that nanotube-based composites may be useful not only for their potentially high strength, but also for their potentially high thermal conductivity. Received: 17 October 2001 / Accepted: 3 December 2001 / Published online: 4 March 2002     

Low temperature thermal properties of crystalline quartz after electron irradiation

Measurements of the temperature specific heat (between 0.12K and 8K) and thermal conductivity (between 0.5K and 20K) of crystalline -quartz after electron irradiation are reported. In the temperature region below 1K the specific heat is larger than in the unirradiated sample. This can be attributed to low energy excitations which are created during irradiation and which are associated with Al impurities. The thermal conductivity is reduced after irradiation. Below 4K the additional thermal resistivity varies asT ^–1.5. The phonon scattering by radiation-induced excitations in -quartz is weak compared to phonon scattering by two level systems (TLS) in vitreous silica.     

物理参数变化对短脉冲激光激励温度场的影响

 为研究多物理参数（耦合系数、电子热导率、电子热容、晶格热容）同时随温度变化对短脉冲激光辐照金属材料产生温度场分布的影响,基于双温耦合理论,建立了短脉冲激光辐照金属材料金的加热过程的有限元求解模型。在同时考虑脉冲激光的空间、时间分布和多参数同时随温度变化的情况下,得到短脉冲激光辐照金属材料金激励产生的温度场二维瞬态分布,并进一步比较了多物理参数同时随温度变化和采用室温物理参数两种情况下温度场分布的区别。数值结果表明：多物理参数同时随温度变化使电子温度和晶格温度的上升变快,最大值变大,而且使得材料中激光穿透直接辐照到的区域温度变高。     

A Lattice Boltzmann Model for Fluid-Solid Coupling Heat Transfer in Fractal Porous Media

We report a lattice Boltzmann model that can be used to simulate fluid-solid coupling heat transfer in fractal porous media. A numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the temperature evolution under different ratios of thermal conductivity of solid matrix of porous media to that of fluid. The accordance of our simulation results with the solutions from the conventional CFD method indicates the feasibility and the reliability for the developed lattice Boltzmann model to reveal the phenomena and rules of fluid-solid coupling heat transfer in complex porous structures.     

Effect of structural relaxation on low energy excitations in amorphous Zr x Cu1−x

We report on an investigation of the liquid-quenched metallic glass Zr _x Cu_1?x (0.6≦x≦0.74) subjected to heat treatments below the glass transition temperatureT _g. Annealing temperatures up to 200°C (<0.8T _g) were chosen as to achieve topological relaxation only. The superconducting transition temperaturesT _c are lowered, as already observed for other metallic glasses. Low temperature measurements of the thermal conductivity (0.5 K≦T≦15 K) and of the specific heat (0.1 K≦T≦3 K) were carried out in order to determine the effect of structural relaxation on the low energy configurational excitations characteristic of the amorphous state. The annealed samples show no detectable (<20%) change in the specific heat forT?T _c, but an increase of the thermal conductivity by a factor of 2 forT?T _c is observed. Within the tunneling model of two level systems (TLS) for the low energy excitations, this behavior can be qualitatively understood in terms of a change of the TLS relaxation time distribution upon annealing. This distribution differs from that of the commonly used standard tunneling model. The change of the phonon scattering by TLS directly observed forT?T_c is largely responsible for the enhancement of the thermal conductivity found also aboveT _c.     

On the finite thermal conductivity of a one-dimensional rotator lattice

A heat transfer process is studied in a one-dimensional lattice of coupled rotators in which the orientation interaction between neighboring units is described by the periodic potential. Using this system as an example, it is demonstrated for the first time that one-dimensional lattices with a finite thermal conductivity in the thermodynamic limit can exist without substrate potential. As the temperature increases, the given system transforms from the state with an infinite thermal conductivity to the state with a finite thermal conductivity. The finiteness of the thermal conductivity stems from the existence of localized stationary excitations that interfere with heat transfer in the lattice. The lifetime and the concentration of these excitations increase with an increase in the temperature, which leads to a monotonic decrease in the thermal conductivity coefficient.     

Energy Transport in Weakly Anharmonic Chains

We investigate the energy transport in a one-dimensional lattice of oscillators with a harmonic nearest neighbor coupling and a harmonic plus quartic on-site potential. As numerically observed for particular coupling parameters before, and confirmed by our study, such chains satisfy Fourier’s law: a chain of length N coupled to thermal reservoirs at both ends has an average steady state energy current proportional to 1/N. On the theoretical level we employ the Peierls transport equation for phonons and note that beyond a mere exchange of labels it admits nondegenerate phonon collisions. These collisions are responsible for a finite heat conductivity. The predictions of kinetic theory are compared with molecular dynamics simulations. In the range of weak anharmonicity, respectively low temperatures, reasonable agreement is observed.     

Mode-coupling theory for the dynamics of tunnelling systems in dielectrics

A mode-coupling theory (MCT) is presented for the spin-boson model with a spectral density which accounts for a heat bath made up of lattice vibrations of a dielectric solid (superohmic dissipation). A usual decoupling approximation provides a set of non-linear integral equations which are solved both numerically by iteration on a computer and analytically by means of a frequency dependent ansatz for the memory functions. There is a transition to incoherent motion at a temperatureT ^* where the bare two-level energy is equal to the damping rate, in contradiction to results obtained previously from a path integral formulation. The discrepancy arises since in the MCT the relevant self-energy function does not exhibit a 1/z-pole atz=0. For tunnelling systems in dielectrics this yields a new relaxation mechanism due to incoherent tunnelling: the present results might require to modify some of the basic assumptions of the standard tunnelling model for dielectric glasses.     

非简谐振动对SiC类石墨烯热输运性质的影响

考虑到原子的非简谐振动,应用固体物理理论和方法,计算了SiC类石墨烯的简谐系数和非简谐系数,得到它的德拜温度、热容量和热导率等随温度的变化规律,探讨了原子非简谐振动对它的热输运性质的影响.结果表明:SiC类石墨烯的德拜温度随温度的升高而在117-126 K之间线性增大,定容比热随温度升高而非线性增大,热导率随温度升高而非线性减小,温度较低时变化较快,而温度较高时变化较慢,并随着温度升高而趋于常量;考虑到非简谐振动后,SiC类石墨烯的德拜温度、定容比热和热导率的值分别大于、小于和大于简谐近似的相应值,温度愈高,其差值愈大,即温度愈高,非简谐效应的影响愈显著;二维平面状的SiC类石墨烯的定容比热和热导率随温度的变化规律,与三维块状SiC晶体总体趋势相同,只是具体数值不同.     

Acoustic absorption in superionic PbF2 across transition temperature

In the present paper, we report a theoretical calculation of temperature variation of the ultrasonic absorption coefficient of PbF₂. The absorption can be explained by the TLS model, with parameters which simultaneously reproduce the specific heat, thermal expansion, bulk modulus and ionic conductivity. Our results agree well with recent experimental reports of ultrasonic attenuation in PbF₂.     

Low temperature specific heat and thermal conductivity of bulk metallic glass (Cu50Zr50)94Al6

The low temperature specific heat and thermal conductivity of (Cu₅₀Zr₅₀)₉₄Al₆ bulk metallic glass have been studied experimentally. A low temperature anomaly in the specific heat is observed in this alloy. It is also found that in addition to Debye oscillators, the localized vibration modes whose vibration density of state has a Gaussian distribution should be considered to explain the low temperature phonon specific heat anomaly. The phonon thermal conductivity dependence on temperature for the sample does not show apparent plateau characteristics as other glass materials do; however, the influence of the resonant scattering from the localized modes on the lattice thermal conductivity is prominent in the bulk metallic glass at low temperatures.     

Temperature dependences of the electron-phonon coupling, electron heat capacity and thermal conductivity in Ni under femtosecond laser irradiation

The electron temperature dependences of the electron-phonon coupling factor, electron heat capacity and thermal conductivity are investigated for Ni in a range of temperatures typically realized in femtosecond laser material processing applications, from room temperature up to temperatures of the order of 10⁴ K. The analysis is based on the electronic density of states obtained through the electronic structure calculations. Thermal excitation of d band electrons is found to result in a significant decrease in the strength of the electron-phonon coupling, as well as large deviations of the electron heat capacity and the electron thermal conductivity from the commonly used linear temperature dependences on the electron temperature. Results of the simulations performed with the two-temperature model demonstrate that the temperature dependence of the thermophysical parameters accounting for the thermal excitation of d band electrons leads to higher maximum lattice and electron temperatures achieved at the surface of an irradiated Ni target and brings the threshold fluences for surface melting closer to the experimentally measured values as compared to the predictions obtained with commonly used approximations of the thermophysical parameters.