Limit for thermal transport reduction in Si nanowires with nanoengineered corrugations

SE Sullivan and KH Lin and S Avdoshenko and A Strachan, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 103, 243107 (2013).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4844995

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the thermal conductance of Si nanowires with periodic corrugations is lower than that of smooth wires with cross-sections equivalent to the constricted portions. This reduction in conductance is up to 30% and tends to plateau with increasing corrugation height. Spatially resolved temperature and heat current maps provide a microscopic understanding of this effect; we find that 80% of the heat current is carried through the constricted area even for high-amplitude corrugations. More importantly, we show that temperature gradient inversion and heat current vortices at the ridge peaks establish fundamental limits on maximum conductance reduction. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

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