Minimising the thermal conductivity

Abstract

It is shown that the lattice conductivity can be reduced by the formation of a solid solution. The theory of scattering of phonons by point defects is presented. It is shown that boundary scattering of phonons may be significant even when their free path length is small. The relative effects of phonon and electron scattering are discussed and the importance of the size of the unit cell is considered. The phonon-glass electron-crystal principle is outlined.