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Electronic conductivity in anharmonic crystals: Phonon dephasing in the electron-phonon interaction

Mingran Kong and Bartomeu Monserrat

  • Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom

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Phys. Rev. B 114, L080304 – Published 7 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zpbf-jj5d

Abstract

The electron-phonon interaction underpins many material properties, for example, the conductivity of metals and the optoelectronic response of semiconductors. First-principles calculations of the electron-phonon interaction are a powerful tool to quantitatively describe many of these properties in increasingly complex materials. However, one key assumption of all calculations is that phonons have infinite lifetimes, an approximation that may break down when anharmonic phonon-phonon interactions are strong. In this work, we present a theory for the interaction of electrons with finite-lifetime phonons experiencing dephasing. Using a first-principles implementation of the theory, we find that anharmonic dephasing dramatically enhances electron-phonon scattering rates in metallic MgB2. Microscopically, phonon-phonon interactions create new scattering channels that increase the phase space available for electron-phonon scattering. As a result, anharmonic dephasing strongly suppresses conductivity in MgB2, bringing the calculated values substantially closer to experiment within the Boltzmann transport equation framework. This example establishes the importance of finite phonon lifetimes in the evaluation of electron-phonon scattering, and the microscopic mechanism suggests that anharmonic dephasing could play an important role in the conductivity of many metals. More broadly, our theory and first-principles implementation of anharmonic dephasing in the electron-phonon interaction provides a solid foundation to explore this regime in other materials.

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Anharmonic dephasing in the electron-phonon interaction

Mingran Kong and Bartomeu Monserrat
Phys. Rev. B 114, 084303 (2026)

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. B 114, L080304– Published 7 August, 2026
  • Received 9 July 2025
  • Revised 17 February 2026
  • Accepted 26 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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