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Role of thermalizing and nonthermalizing walls in phonon heat conduction along thin films

Ravichandran, Navaneetha K. and Minnich, Austin J. (2016) Role of thermalizing and nonthermalizing walls in phonon heat conduction along thin films. Physical Review B, 93 (3). Art. No. 035314. ISSN 2469-9950. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.035314. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160205-142512254

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Abstract

Phonon boundary scattering is typically treated using the Fuchs-Sondheimer theory, which assumes that phonons are thermalized to the local temperature at the boundary. However, whether such a thermalization process actually occurs and its effect on thermal transport remains unclear. Here we examine thermal transport along thin films with both thermalizing and nonthermalizing walls by solving the spectral Boltzmann transport equation for steady state and transient transport. We find that in steady state, the thermal transport is governed by the Fuchs-Sondheimer theory and is insensitive to whether the boundaries are thermalizing or not. In contrast, under transient conditions, the thermal decay rates are significantly different for thermalizing and nonthermalizing walls. We also show that, for transient transport, the thermalizing boundary condition is unphysical due to violation of heat flux conservation at the boundaries. Our results provide insights into the boundary scattering process of thermal phonons over a range of heating length scales that are useful for interpreting thermal measurements on nanostructures.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.035314DOIArticle
http://journals.aps.org/prb/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.035314/Supplementary_Material_V1.pdfPublisherSupplementary Information
http://arxiv.org/abs/1511.03312arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Minnich, Austin J.0000-0002-9671-9540
Alternate Title:The Role of Thermalizing and Non-thermalizing Walls in Phonon Heat Conduction along Thin Films
Additional Information:© 2016 American Physical Society. Received 5 November 2015; revised manuscript received 31 December 2015; published 28 January 2016. N.K.R. would like to thank the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech and the Dow Chemical Company for fellowship support. A.J.M. was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CBET CAREER 1254213.
Group:Resnick Sustainability Institute
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
Resnick Sustainability InstituteUNSPECIFIED
Dow Chemical CompanyUNSPECIFIED
NSFCBET 1254213
Issue or Number:3
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.035314
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20160205-142512254
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160205-142512254
Official Citation:Role of thermalizing and nonthermalizing walls in phonon heat conduction along thin films Navaneetha K. Ravichandran and Austin J. Minnich Phys. Rev. B 93, 035314 – Published 28 January 2016
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:64284
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Heidi Rusina
Deposited On:05 Feb 2016 23:00
Last Modified:10 Nov 2021 23:28

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