Theory of phonon-phonon interaction in anharmonic crystals with randomly distributed isotopic impurities

Distinguishing Quasiparticle-Phonon Interactions by Ultrahigh-Resolution Lifetime Measurements

We present a determination of quasiparticle-phonon interaction strengths at surfaces through measurements of phonon spectra with ultrahigh energy resolution. The lifetimes of low energy surface phonons on a pristine Ru(0001) surface were determined over a wide range of temperatures and an analysis of the temperature dependence enables us to attribute separate contributions from electron-phonon interactions, phonon-phonon interactions, and defect-phonon interactions. Strong electron-phonon interactions are evident at all temperatures and we show they dominate over phonon-phonon interactions below 400 K.

Dissipation induced by phonon elastic scattering in crystals

We demonstrate that the phonon elastic scattering leads to a dominant dissipation in crystals at low temperature. The two-level systems (TLSs) should be responsible for the elastic scattering, whereas the dissipation induced by static-point defects (SPDs) can not be neglected. One purpose of this work is to show how the energy splitting distribution of the TLS ensemble affects the dissipation. Besides, this article displays the proportion of phonon-TLS elastic scattering to total phonon dissipation. The coupling coefficient of phonon-SPD scattering and the constant P₀ of the TLS distribution are important that we estimate their magnitudes in this paper. Our results is useful to understand the phonon dissipation mechanism, and give some clues to improve the performance of mechanical resonators, apply the desired defects, or reveal the atom configuration in lattice structure of disordered crystals.