| Summary: | Thermocrystals constitute a new type of periodic material that can be used to control heat flow. An important issue is how to widen the bandgap of thermocrystals to cover more of the thermal spectrum, and this is related to the efficiency of manipulating the transport of heat flow in a thermocrystal. In this letter, a one-dimensional supercrystal composed of multiple lattices is proposed, and the dispersion relation and heat flux transmittance of thermocrystals and thermo-supercrystals are simulated. The results show that supercrystals are effective for widening the bandgap of thermal phonons; thus, supercrystals are more efficient at preventing thermal phonons than are thermocrystals. As an example, the thermal conductivity is reduced by 37% in a supercrystal with five different lattice constants, compared to a reduction of only 19.6% in thermocrystals. This supercrystal can be used to achieve an effective thermal-conductivity barrier with general materials, which will be very important for manipulating heat conduction.
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