Nanomaterials (Dec 2021)

Tuning the Anisotropic Thermal Transport in {110}-Silicon Membranes with Surface Resonances

  • Keqiang Li,
  • Yajuan Cheng,
  • Maofeng Dou,
  • Wang Zeng,
  • Sebastian Volz,
  • Shiyun Xiong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12010123
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. 123

Abstract

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Understanding the thermal transport in nanostructures has important applications in fields such as thermoelectric energy conversion, novel computing and heat dissipation. Using non-homogeneous equilibrium molecular dynamic simulations, we studied the thermal transport in pristine and resonant Si membranes bounded with {110} facets. The break of symmetry by surfaces led to the anisotropic thermal transport with the thermal conductivity along the [110]-direction to be 1.78 times larger than that along the [100]-direction in the pristine structure. In the pristine membranes, the mean free path of phonons along both the [100]- and [110]-directions could reach up to ∼100 µm. Such modes with ultra-long MFP could be effectively hindered by surface resonant pillars. As a result, the thermal conductivity was significantly reduced in resonant structures, with 87.0% and 80.8% reductions along the [110]- and [100]-directions, respectively. The thermal transport anisotropy was also reduced, with the ratio κ110/κ100 decreasing to 1.23. For both the pristine and resonant membranes, the thermal transport was mainly conducted by the in-plane modes. The current work could provide further insights in understanding the thermal transport in thin membranes and resonant structures.

Keywords