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Title: Unifying first-principles theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of size effects in thermal transport in SiGe alloys

Journal Article · · Physical Review Materials
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
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We demonstrate the agreement between first-principles calculations and experimental measurements of size effects in thermal transport in SiGe alloys without fitting parameters. Transient thermal grating (TTG) is used to measure the effect of the grating period on the temperature decay. The virtual crystal approximation under the density-functional-theory framework combined with impurity scattering is used to determine the phonon properties for the exact alloy composition of the measured samples. With these properties, classical size effects are calculated for the experimental geometry of reflection mode TTG using the recently developed variational solution to the phonon Boltzmann transport equation, which is verified against established Monte Carlo simulations. Here, we find agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements in the reduction of thermal conductivity (as much as fourfold of the bulk value) across grating periods spanning one order of magnitude. This paper provides a framework for the study of size effects in thermal transport in opaque materials.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577
OSTI ID:
1470057
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1398153
Journal Information:
Physical Review Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 5; Related Information: S3TEC partners with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead); Boston College; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; ISSN 2475-9953
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Thermal diffusivity determination using heterodyne phase insensitive transient grating spectroscopy journal June 2018

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