Significant phase-space-driven thermal transport suppression in BC8 silicon

The BC8 silicon allotrope has a lattice thermal conductivity 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than that of diamond-cubic silicon. In the current work, the phonon density of states, phonon dispersion, and lattice thermal conductivity are investigated by inelastic neutron scattering measurements and first-principles calculations. Flat phonon bands are found to play a critical role in the reduction of lattice thermal conductivity in BC8-Si. Such bands in the low-energy range enhance the phonon scattering between acoustic and low-energy optical phonons, while bands in the intermediate-energy range act as a scattering bridge between the high- and low-energy optical phonons. They significantly enlarge the phonon-phonon scattering phase space and reduces the lattice thermal conductivity in this novel silicon allotrope. This work provides insights into the significant reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity in BC8 -Si, thus expanding the understanding of novel silicon allotropes and their development for electronic devices. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.