Abnormal thermal conductivity in tetragonal tungsten bronze Ba_(6-x)Sr_xNb_(10)O_(30)

摘要

Ba_(6-x)Sr_xNb_(10)O_(30) solid solution with 0 ≤ x ≤ 6 crystallizes in centrosymmetric tetragonal "tungsten bronze" structure (space group P4/mbm). We report on the x dependence of thermal conductivity of polycrystalline samples measured in the 2-400 K temperature interval. Substitution of Sr for Ba brings about a significant decrease in thermal conductivity at x ≥ 3 accompanied by development of a low-temperature (T ≈ 10-30 K) "plateau" region reminiscent of a glass-like compounds. We explain this behaviour based on a size-driven site occupancy and atomic displacement parameters associated with an alkaline earth atomic positions in the title compounds.