Coupling of phase transition, anharmonicity, and thermal transport in
Phys. Rev. B 114, 185202 – Published 23 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7bnr-kt5c
Abstract
Understanding the coupling between structural phase transitions and thermal transport is essential for designing functional materials with tunable properties. Here, we investigate this interplay in by combining first-principles calculations with a machine-learned neuroevolution potential that enables large-scale molecular dynamics simulations across a wide temperature range. The simulations accurately capture the first-order structural phase transition and associated lattice dynamics. We show that the negative thermal expansion originates from low-energy rigid unit modes involving cooperative rotations of corner-sharing and octahedras, which induce bond-angle bending and volume contraction. At the same time, strong anharmonicity, dominated by four-phonon scattering, plays a central role in suppressing lattice thermal conductivity . Crucially, nonequilibrium simulations reveal a pronounced nonmonotonic anomaly in near the phase transition, deviating from the conventional behavior and providing direct transport evidence of lattice reconstruction. These results establish a unified mechanism linking lattice geometry, anharmonic vibrational dynamics, and thermal transport, and highlight the potential of machine-learned potentials for bridging atomic-scale phase transitions with macroscopic transport properties.