Giant anisotropic in-plane thermal conduction induced by Anomalous phonons in pentagonal PdSe₂

In two-dimensional materials, different atomic stacking induces anisotropic atomic interactions and phonon dispersions, leading to the anisotropy of in-plane thermal transport. Here, we report an exceptional case in layered pentagonal PdSe₂, where the bonds, force constants, and lattice constants are nearly-equal along the in-plane crystallographic axis directions, while the thermal conductivity is surprisingly much greater along b-axis than along a-axis with a ratio up to 1.8. Such strong anisotropy is not only unexpected in in-plane uniform structured materials, but also comparable to the record high in-plane anisotropic thermal conductivity in the nonuniform structured material reported to date (the ratio is ∼2.0 in TiS₃). By combining the inelastic X-ray scattering measurement and the first-principles calculations, we attribute such high anisotropy to the low-energy phonons along a-axis, particularly their lower group velocities and “avoided-crossing” behavior. The different buckling structures between a- (zigzag-type) and b-axis (flat-type) are mainly responsible for such unique phonon dynamics properties of PdSe₂. This finding helps to discover materials with high anisotropic in-plane thermal conductivity in uniform structures and reveals new physics of anisotropy of in-plane thermal conduction. Due to the unique features in structure and thermal transport properties, PdSe2 may serve as a new platform for designing novel devices to route heat flow precisely at the nanoscale.