Phonon modal analysis of thermal transport in ThO₂ with point defects using equilibrium molecular dynamics

Defects can significantly degrade the thermal conductivity of ThO₂, an advanced nuclear fuel material as well as a surrogate for other fluorite-structured materials. Here, we investigate how point defects in ThO₂ impact phonon mode-resolved thermal transport. By incorporating phonon modes from lattice dynamics, we decompose the trajectory and heat flux to phonon normal mode space and extract key phonon properties, including phonon relaxation times and their contributions to thermal conductivity. We implement two methods. The first method is based on the Green Kubo formalism to resolve the contribution of each phonon mode to thermal conductivity. The second resolves the lifetime of individual phonon modes and the thermal conductivity is calculated using the Boltzmann transport equation within relaxation time approximation. Notably, a lower contribution of acoustic modes is revealed compared to perturbative approaches considering only three-phonon scattering processes. The effects of four types of point defects are evaluated. The strongest impact on a reduction in thermal conductivity is from Th interstitials, followed by Th vacancies. O interstitials/vacancies have a similar impact, albeit smaller than defects on the thorium sublattice. These observations are consistent with previous studies.. Authors: Chen, Beihan [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)] (ORCID:000000025762053X); Malakkal, Linu [Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)] (ORCID:0000000348950323); Khafizov, Marat [The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)] (ORCID:0000000181713528); Hurley, David H. [Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)] (ORCID:0000000218451518); Jin, Miaomiao [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000235434082). DOE Contract: AC07-05ID14517. Subjects: 11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Defects; Molecular dynamics; Phonon; Thermal conductivity; Thorium dioxide