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

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 mem...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Keqiang Li, Yajuan Cheng, Maofeng Dou, Wang Zeng, Sebastian Volz, Shiyun Xiong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-12-01
Series:Nanomaterials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/12/1/123
Description
Summary: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 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>κ</mi><mn>110</mn></msub><mo>/</mo><msub><mi>κ</mi><mn>100</mn></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> 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.
ISSN:2079-4991