Role of Chemical Ordering on Phononic Transport in Binary Alloys

Many random substitutional solid solutions (alloys) will display a tendency to chemically order given the appropriate kinetic and thermodynamic conditions. Such order-disorder transitions will result in major crystallographic reconfigurations, where the atomic basis, symmetry, and periodicity of the alloy change dramatically. Consequently, phonon behavior in these alloys will vary greatly depending on the type and degree of ordering achieved. To investigate these phenomena, the role of the order-disorder transition on phononic transport properties of Lennard-Jones type binary alloys is explored via non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. Particular attention is paid to regimes in which the alloy is only partially ordered. It is shown that, through exploitation of the long-range order parameter, thermal conductivity of binary alloys can be effectively tuned across half an order of magnitude at low-to-moderate temperatures.