Observation and interpretation of the low-temperature features of the phonon thermal conductivity of mercury selenide crystals doped with impurities of 3d transition elements

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of mercury selenide containing iron and cobalt impurities is investigated experimentally. An analysis of the phonon contributions to the thermal conductivity at low temperatures in HgSe:Fe crystals reveals a significant impurity-related anomaly of the phonon thermal conductivity—a dip in its temperature dependence near 15K. On the basis of a proposed theoretical description it is shown that this anomaly is explained by the contribution to the thermal conductivity from the scattering of phonons on electrons in hybridized impurity states.