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Title: Ballistic vs. diffusive heat transfer across nanoscopic films of layered crystals

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870940· OSTI ID:22273625
;  [1]
  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180 (United States)

We use non-equilibrium molecular dynamics to study the heat transfer mechanism across sandwich interfacial structures of Si/n-atomic-layers/Si, with 1 ≤ n ≤ 20 and atomic layers composed of WSe{sub 2} and/or graphene. In the case of WSe{sub 2} sheets, we observe that the thermal resistance of the sandwich structure is increasing almost linearly with the number of WSe{sub 2} sheets, n, indicating a diffusive phonon transport mechanism. By contrast in the case of n graphene layers, the interfacial thermal resistance is more or less independent on the number of layers for 1 ≤ n ≤ 10, and is associated with ballistic phonon transport mechanism. We attribute the diffusive heat transfer mechanism across WSe{sub 2} sheets to abundant low frequency and low group velocity optical modes that carry most of the heat across the interface. By contrast, in graphene, acoustic modes dominate the thermal transport across the interface and render a ballistic heat flow mechanism.

OSTI ID:
22273625
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 14; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English