Thermal switch based on ferroelasticity VA-N binary compounds

Ferroelastic materials possess two or more equally stable orientation variants and can be effectively modulated via external fields, including stress and electronic field. In this paper, taking the VA-N ferroelastic materials as examples, we propose a thermal switch device based on their ferroelastic characteristics. The results show that the VA-N binary compound exhibits excellent ferroelasticity, high reversible elastic strain (5.5%–54.1%), and suitable switching energy barriers (0.012–0.386 eV/atom) in both δ and α phases. Utilizing the advanced on-the-fly machine learning potential, we obtain physically well-defined quadratic dispersion curves in the long-wavelength limit and further evaluate their lattice thermal conductivity of δ and α phase VA-N binary compounds. Due to the difference in phonon group velocities, the lattice thermal conductivity of VA-N binary compounds along the armchair direction is obviously smaller than that along the zigzag direction. Such remarkable anisotropy and easily switchable features based on ferroelasticity endow reversible and real-time regulation of thermal conductivity of VA-N binary compounds. The ferroelastic-based thermal switch hosts high switch ratios range from 2.08 to 5.99 and does not require additional energy to maintain the modulation state. The results presented herein provide a pavement for designing next-generation thermal switches and propose a reliable solution for eliminating the nonphysical pseudo-phenomenon of phonon dispersion curve violation of quadratic dispersion in the long-wavelength limit.