The role of high-order anharmonicity and off-diagonal terms in thermal conductivity: a case study of multi-phase CsPbBr3

Abstract

We investigate the influence of three- and four-phonon scattering, perturbative anharmonic phonon renormalization, and off-diagonal terms of coherent phonons on the thermal conductivity of CsPbBr3 phase change perovskite, by using advanced implementations and first-principles simulations. Our study spans a wide temperature range covering the entire structural spectrum. Notably, we demonstrate that the interactions between acoustic and optical phonons result in contrasting trends of phonon frequency shifts for the high-lying optical phonons in orthorhombic and cubic CsPbBr3 as temperature varies. Our findings highlight the significance of wave-like tunneling of coherent phonons in ultralow and glass-like thermal conductivity in halide perovskites.