The importance of a quadratic dispersion in acoustic flexural phonons for the thermal transport of 2D materials

Solutions of the Peierls-Boltzmann transport equation using inputs from density functional theory calculations have been successful in predicting the thermal conductivity in a wide range of materials. In the case of two-dimensional (2D) materials, the accuracy of this method can depend highly on the shape of the dispersion curve for flexural phonon (ZA). As a universal feature, very recent theoretical studies have shown that the ZA branch of 2D materials is quadratic. However, many prior thermal conductivity studies and conclusions are based on a ZA branch with linear components. In this work, we systematically study the impact of the long-wavelength dispersion of the ZA branch in graphene, silicene, and $\alpha$-nitrophosphorene to highlight its role in thermal conductivity predictions. Our results show that the predicted $\kappa$ value, its convergence, and anisotropy, as well as phonon lifetimes and mean free path can change substantially even with small linear to pure quadratic corrections to the shape of the long-wavelength ZA branch. Also, having a pure quadratic ZA dispersion can improve the convergence speed, and reduce uncertainty in this computational framework when different exchange-correlation functionals are used in the density functional theory calculations. Our findings may provide a helpful guideline for more accurate and efficient thermal conductivity estimation in mono- and few-layer 2D materials.