Minimizing Heat Transport by Ballistic Confinement in Phononic Metalattices

ORAL

Abstract

We study the thermal conductivity of phononic metalattices, a class of newly synthesized nanostructures exhibiting long-range periodicity commensurate with the mean free paths of the phonons. In this work, we present a computational approach that is capable of computing the ballistic phonon mean free paths in periodic metamaterials by embedding an explicit model of phonon radiation into a continuum density of scatters, closing the gap between existing analytical models and numerical simulations. Our computational predictions supported by sensitive measurements indicate that the thermal conductivity minimum of metalattices can be as low as 0.15 W/m/K, which is among the smallest lattice conductivities reported for two- and three-dimensional silicon-based materials. This exceptional reduction in the heat conductivity establishes metalattices as a useful platform to achieve order-of-magnitude tunability in the thermal response of crystalline semiconductors.

*The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for Nanoscale Science at Penn State University under grant NSF-DMR 1420620. Computations were performed on the Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for CyberScience Advanced CyberInfrastructure.

Presenters

  • Weinan Chen

    • Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • Weinan Chen

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Disha Talreja

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Devin Goodling

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Pratibha Mahale

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Nabila Nova

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Hiu Cheng

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Jennifer Russell

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Shih-Ying Yu

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Nicolas Poilvert

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Gerald D Mahan

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Suzanne Mohney

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Vincent Crespi

    • Penn State University
    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Thomas Mallouk

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • John Badding

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Brian Foley

    • Pennsylvania State University
  • Venkatraman Gopalan

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
    • Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
  • Ismaila Dabo

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
    • Material Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
    • The Pennsylvania State University