Negative thermal expansion due to negative area compressibility in TlGaSe2 semiconductor with layered crystalline structure

Abstract

We conducted comparison of the original experimental data of the temperature dependences of thermal expansion in crystals with layered crystalline structure. It is shown that in most crystals with layered structure (graphite, boron nitride, GaSe, GaS, and InSe) the effect of negative thermal expansion can be explained by the specific character of the phonon spectra. It was shown, that in contrast to other crystals with layered structure, negative thermal expansion in the layers' plane of TlGaSe2 is the result of negative area compressibility. We demonstrate that the thermal expansion of TlGaSe2 crystals can be controlled by illumination, external electric field, and thermal annealing. The nature of observed effects and a special mechanism of the negative area compressibility in TlGaSe2 crystals are discussed. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3486211]