The influence of structural features on the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline zinc sulfide

The thermal conductivity of single-crystal zinc sulfide and optically transparent zinc sulfide polycrystals differing in crystal grain size and density is experimentally investigated in the temperature range 80–400 K. It is shown that the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline samples substantially depends on the crystal grain size and the defect concentration in the grain-boundary layers. In zinc sulfide samples with a grain size of 1 µm, excess thermal resistance due to phonon scattering by grain boundaries is observed at temperatures T<130 K. It is demonstrated that, at higher temperatures (T>210 K), the heat transfer is associated not only with transverse phonon modes but also with longitudinal phonon modes and the role of the latter modes increases with an increase in temperature.