Plane polarized-longitudinal Phonons in realistic low dimensional systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of plane polarized phonons in low-dimensional systems, showing how transverse modes influence thermal properties and can explain negative thermal expansion at low temperatures.

Contribution

It presents a novel analysis of transverse phonon modes with quartic nonlinear potential, linking them to negative thermal expansion and negative Gruneisen parameter in low-dimensional systems.

Findings

Transverse phonons lead to negative Gruneisen parameter of -1.

Transverse modes cause negative thermal expansion at low temperatures.

Solutions of nonlinear equations approximate sinusoidal wave behavior.

Abstract

A realistic one-dimensional system has not only longitudinal phonons, but also possible transverse modes, which derive their restoring force from longitudinal interaction. We show that transverse motion results in a quartic displacement term in transverse direction as the first non-vanishing term in the potential energy. This results in solution of a composite longitudinal motion superimposed by a transverse motion propagating along the length direction identified as a plane polarized phonons. Interestingly, solutions of the quartic nonlinear equation have been expressed accurately, though approximately in terms of sinusoidal solutions by modifying the periodicity of sin function. The phonons along the transverse direction, now with a weakened frequency compared to the longitudinal has interesting impact- it gives rise to negative Gruneisen parameter with a value of -1 and is responsible for negative thermal expansion in the low temperature regime. Similar results of graphene sheet based on consideration of transverse (surface ripple like) modes to the planar direction, provides explanation to the observed negative thermal expansion in low temperature regime. The concept of plane polarized phonons seems new and interesting. All dynamics of atomic motion, despite involving quartc nonlinear equation is expressible in terms of simple harmonic motion. The most important feature of the transverse modes of an open surface or chain is their dependence on lateral or longitudinal modes, and as soon as more chains or more surfaces are added, bulk interactions are initiated and longitudinal dependence of transverse motion is lost and so also very distinguishing thermodynamic properties.