Ultrafast Electron Diffuse Scattering as a Tool for Studying Phonon Transport: Phonon Hydrodynamics and Second Sound Oscillations

Hydrodynamic phonon transport phenomena, like second sound, have been observed in liquid Helium more than 50 years ago. More recently second sound has been observed in graphite at over 200 K using transient thermal grating techniques. In this work we explore the signatures of second sound in ultrafast electron diffuse scattering (UEDS) patterns. We use density functional theory and solve the Boltzmann transport equation to determine time-resolved non-equilibrium phonon populations and subsequently calculate one-phonon structure factors and diffuse scattering patterns to simulate experimental data covering the regimes of ballistic, diffusive, and hydrodynamic phonon transport. For systems like graphite, UEDS is capable of extracting time-dependent phonon occupancies across the entire Brillouin zone and ultimately lead to a more fundamental understanding of the hydrodynamic phonon transport regime.