Phonon anharmonicity: a pertinent review of recent progress and perspective

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in understanding phonon anharmonicity, its mechanisms, research methods, and applications in developing advanced materials with tailored thermal properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of recent progress, highlighting new behaviors, mechanisms, and potential future directions in phonon anharmonicity research.

Findings

Phonon anharmonicity influences various material properties like thermal conductivity and phase transitions.

Recent studies reveal novel behaviors such as negative thermal expansion and high-temperature superconductivity.

Challenges and future prospects in phonon anharmonicity engineering are discussed.

Abstract

Anharmonic lattice vibrations govern the thermal dynamics in materials and present how the atoms interact and how they conduct heat. An indepth understanding of the microscopic mechanism of phonon anharmonicity in condensed systems is critical for developing better functional and energy materials. In recent years, a variety of novel behaviors in condense matters are driven by phonon anharmonic effects in some way or another, such as soft mode phase transition, negative thermal expansion, multiferroicity, ultralow thermal conductivity or high thermal resistance, and high-temperature superconductivity, etc. All these properties have endowed anharmonicity with many promising applications and provided remarkable opportunities for developing anharmonicity engineering, regulating heat transport towards excellent performance in materials. In this work, we review the recent development of the study on phonon anharmonic effect and summarize its origination, influence and mechanism, research methods, and applications. Besides, the remaining challenges, future trends, and prospects of phonon anharmonicity are also put forward.