Nonlocality and strength of interatomic interactions inducing the topological phonon phase transition

Abstract

Understanding phonon behavior in semiconductors from a topological physics perspective offers opportunities to uncover extraordinary phenomena related to phonon transport and electron–phonon interactions. While various types of topological phonons have been reported in different crystalline solids, their microscopic origins remain quantitatively unexplored. In this study, analytical interatomic force constant (IFC) models are employed for wurtzite GaN and AlN to establish relationships between phonon topology and real-space IFCs. The results demonstrate that variations in the strength and nonlocality of IFCs can induce phonon phase transitions in GaN and AlN through band reversal, leading to the emergence of new Weyl phonons at the boundaries and within the Brillouin zones. Among the observed Weyl points, some remain identical in both materials under simple IFC modeling, while others exhibit variability depending on the specific case. Compared to the strength of the IFCs, nonlocal interactions have a significantly larger impact on inducing topological phonon phase transitions, particularly in scenarios modeled by the IFC model and the SW potential. The greater number of the third nearest neighbor atoms in wurtzite AlN provides more room for variations in the topological phonon phase than in GaN, resulting in more substantial changes in AlN.