On the importance of collective excitations for thermal transport in graphene

Journal Article · Mon May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921127· OSTI ID:22399055

Gill-Comeau, Maxime

We use equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study heat transport in bulk single-layer graphene. Through a modal analysis of the MD trajectories employing a time-domain formulation, we find that collective excitations involving flexural acoustic (ZA) phonons, which have been neglected in the previous MD studies, actually dominate the heat flow, generating as much as 78% of the flux. These collective excitations are, however, much less significant if the atomic displacements are constrained in the lattice plane. Although relaxation is slow, we find graphene to be a regular (non-anomalous) heat conductor for sample sizes of order 40 μm and more.

• OSTI ID: 22399055
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COLLECTIVE EXCITATIONS
EQUILIBRIUM
GRAPHENE
HEAT FLUX
HEAT TRANSFER
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
PHONONS
RELAXATION
THERMAL CONDUCTION