Normal Mode Analysis of Atomic Motion in Solids

Decomposition of atomic motion into individual normal modes has led to remarkable success in microscopically understanding thermal properties and thermodynamics in simple solids. We start this chapter with an example of decomposing atomic motion of a simple monatomic linear chain crystal into normal modes followed by a more general, classical normal mode formalism. Different classifications of normal modes such as phonons, propagons, diffusons, and locons are introduced. Finally, heat capacity and thermal conductivity predictions from the normal mode formalism are demonstrated.