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Role of low-energy phonons with mean-free-paths >0.8 μm in heat conduction in silicon

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4954674· OSTI ID:1271890
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. National University of Singapore (Singapore)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Despite recent progress in the first-principles calculations and measurements of phonon mean-free-paths (ℓ), contribution of low-energy phonons to heat conduction in silicon is still inconclusive, as exemplified by the discrepancies as large as 30% between different first-principles calculations. In this study, we investigate the contribution of low-energy phonons with ℓ>0.8 μm by accurately measuring the cross-plane thermal conductivity (Λcross) of crystalline silicon films by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR), over a wide range of film thicknesses 1≤ hf ≤ 10 μm and temperatures 100 ≤ T ≤ 300 K. We employ a dual-frequency TDTR approach to improve the accuracy of our Λcross measurements. We find from our Λcross measurements that phonons with ℓ>0.8 μm contribute 53 W m-1 K-1 (37%) to heat conduction in natural Si at 300 K while phonons with ℓ>3 μm contribute 523 W m-1 K-1 (61%) at 100 K, >20% lower than first-principles predictions of 68 W m-1 K-1 (47%) and 717 W m-1 K-1 (76%), respectively. Using a relaxation time approximation (RTA) model, we demonstrate that macroscopic damping (e.g., Akhieser s damping) eliminates the contribution of phonons with mean-free-paths >20 μm at 300 K, which contributes 15 W m-1 K-1 (10%) to calculated heat conduction in Si. Thus, we propose that omission of the macroscopic damping for low-energy phonons in the first-principles calculations could be one of the possible explanations for the observed differences between our measurements and calculations. Finally, our work provides an important benchmark for future measurements and calculations of the distribution of phonon mean-free-paths in crystalline silicon.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1271890
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1259982
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 119; ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (15)

Phonon Spectrum and Transient Regimes in the KCM book January 2018
Phonon Scattering in Silicon by Multiple Morphological Defects: A Multiscale Analysis journal May 2018
Heat guiding and focusing using ballistic phonon transport in phononic nanostructures journal May 2017
Dislocation-induced thermal transport anisotropy in single-crystal group-III nitride films journal December 2018
Probing ballistic thermal conduction in segmented silicon nanowires journal January 2019
A new elliptical-beam method based on time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) to measure the in-plane anisotropic thermal conductivity and its comparison with the beam-offset method journal September 2018
Tutorial: Time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) for thermal property characterization of bulk and thin film materials journal October 2018
Modeling ballistic phonon transport from a cylindrical electron beam heat source journal September 2019
Highly anisotropic thermoelectric properties of black phosphorus crystals journal July 2019
First principles kinetic-collective thermal conductivity of semiconductors journal April 2017
Interfacial phonon scattering and transmission loss in > 1 µm thick silicon-on-insulator thin films journal May 2018
First-principles simulations of heat transport journal November 2017
Thermal Transport in Crystals as a Kinetic Theory of Relaxons journal October 2016
A new elliptical-beam method based on time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) to measure the in-plane anisotropic thermal conductivity and its comparison with the beam-offset method text January 2018
Dislocation-induced thermal transport anisotropy in single-crystal group-III nitride films text January 2018

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