Phasons rule heat flow in fresnoite

Scientific Achievement: Neutron scattering and thermal transport measurements reveal that phasons in piezoelectric fresnoite carry more heat than phonons by propagating farther and faster.

Significance and Impact: Understanding thermal conductivity in incommensurate crystals is important for many energy materials, so finding that phasons – which are often ignored – can dominate thermal conductivity in such systems is an important development.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.255901