Abnormal thermal conductivity in tetragonal tungsten bronze Ba6− x Sr x Nb10O30

Ba6−xSrxNb10O30 solid solution with 0 ≤ x ≤ 6 crystallizes in centrosymmetric tetragonal “tungsten bronze” structure (space group P4/mbm). We report on the x dependence of thermal conductivity of polycrystalline samples measured in the 2–400 K temperature interval. Substitution of Sr for Ba brings about a significant decrease in thermal conductivity at x ≥ 3 accompanied by development of a low-temperature (T ≈ 10–30 K) “plateau” region reminiscent of a glass-like compounds. We explain this behaviour based on a size-driven site occupancy and atomic displacement parameters associated with an alkaline earth atomic positions in the title compounds.