Effects of interfacial roughness on phonon transport in bilayer silicon thin films

WY Chen and JK Yang and ZY Wei and CH Liu and KD Bi and DY Xu and DY Li and YF Chen, PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 92, 134113 (2015).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.134113

We report on molecular dynamics studies of phonon (lattice vibrations) transport in bilayer silicon thin films stuck together via van der Waals interactions. Results indicate that for bilayer thin films with an atomically smooth interface, the in-plane thermal conductivity of the bilayer films is the same as that of a single layer; however, the in- plane thermal conductivity of bilayer films is higher than that of single films if roughness is introduced at the interface. These observations are explained by the effects of interfacial roughness on phonon specularity parameters for transmitted and reflected phonons.

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