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Direct Measurement of Room-Temperature Nondiffusive Thermal Transport Over Micron Distances in a Silicon Membrane

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  2. Catalan Inst. of Nanotechnology, Barcelona (Spain); Univ. College Cork (Ireland). Dept. of Physics. Tyndall National Inst.
  3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
  4. Catalan Inst. of Nanotechnology, Barcelona (Spain)
  5. Catalan Inst. of Nanotechnology, Barcelona (Spain); Catalan Inst. for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona (Spain); Autonomous Univ. of Barcelona (Spain). Dept. of Physics
The “textbook” phonon mean free path of heat carrying phonons in silicon at room temperature is $${\sim}40\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{nm}$$. However, a large contribution to the thermal conductivity comes from low-frequency phonons with much longer mean free paths. We present here a simple experiment demonstrating that room-temperature thermal transport in Si significantly deviates from the diffusion model already at micron distances. Absorption of crossed laser pulses in a freestanding silicon membrane sets up a sinusoidal temperature profile that is monitored via diffraction of a probe laser beam. By changing the period of the thermal grating we vary the heat transport distance within the range $${\sim}1-10\text{ }\text{ }{\mu}\mathrm{m}$$. At small distances, we observe a reduction in the effective thermal conductivity indicating a transition from the diffusive to the ballistic transport regime for the low-frequency part of the phonon spectrum.
Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001299
OSTI ID:
1081191
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1101856
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 110; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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