Temperature dependence of phonon lifetimes in dielectric crystals

Abstract

We present calculations of the temperature dependence of the lifetime of phonons due to anharmonic interactions. The contributions to the lifetime arising from phonon decay and phonon-phonon collisions are considered separately and, in addition, the relative strength of normal and umklapp processes is determined. The calculations are performed for an fcc lattice with nearest-neighbor central forces. © 1995 The American Physical Society.