Simulated thermal conductivity of silicon-based random multilayer thin films

A Frachioni and BE White, JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 112, 014320 (2012).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4733351

Reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been used to quantify the impact of randomly placed mass-altered atomic planes, such as those produced in pseudomorphically grown heterostructures, on the thermal conductivity of silicon. The results indicate that the room temperature thermal conductivity of these silicon-based structures can be reduced to values below 0.050 W/m-K. These values are significantly less than those found in random alloy or superlattice structures containing the same percentage of mass-altered atoms and are attributed to Anderson localization of phonons. Such low lattice thermal conductivity in these silicon-based structures could dramatically improve the thermoelectric efficiency of this earth abundant material. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4733351

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