We introduce a novel approach to model heat transport in solids, based on the Green-Kubo theory of linear response. It naturally bridges the Boltzmann kinetic approach in crystals and the ...Allen-Feldman model in glasses, leveraging interatomic force constants and normal-mode linewidths computed at mechanical equilibrium. At variance with molecular dynamics, our approach naturally and easily accounts for quantum mechanical effects in energy transport. Our methodology is carefully validated against results for crystalline and amorphous silicon from equilibrium molecular dynamics and, in the former case, from the Boltzmann transport equation.
Understanding the design rules to obtain materials that enable a tight control of phonon transport over a broad range of frequencies would aid major developments in thermoelectric energy harvesting, ...heat management in microelectronics, and information and communication technology. Using atomistic simulations we show that the metamaterials approach relying on localized resonances is very promising to engineer heat transport at the nanoscale. Combining designed resonant structures to alloying can lead to extremely low thermal conductivity in silicon nanowires. The hybridization between resonant phonons and propagating modes greatly reduces the group velocities and the phonon mean free paths in the low frequency acoustic range below 4 THz. Concurrently, alloy scattering hinders the propagation of high frequency thermal phonons. Our calculations establish a rationale between the size, shape, and period of the resonant structures, and the thermal conductivity of the nanowire, and demonstrate that this approach is even effective to block phonon transport in wavelengths much longer than the size and period of the surface resonant structures. A further consequence of using resonant structures is that they are not expected to scatter electrons, which is beneficial for thermoelectric applications.
We present a series of molecular dynamics, lattice dynamics, and Boltzmann transport equation calculations aimed at understanding heat transport in Silicon nanowires. In agreement with recent ...experiments, we find that the computed thermal conductivity strongly depends on the surface structure. It may be as high as that of bulk Si for crystalline wires, while wires with amorphous surfaces have the smallest thermal conductivity, about 100 times lower than the bulk. Two, combined effects are responsible for this dramatic difference: the presence, at disordered surfaces, of extended, nonpropagating modes analogous to heat carriers in amorphous Si, together with decreased lifetimes of propagating modes.
We investigate the effect of strain and isotopic disorder on thermal transport in suspended graphene by equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the thermal conductivity of unstrained ...graphene, calculated from the fluctuations of the heat current at equilibrium, is finite and converges with size at finite temperature. In contrast, the thermal conductivity of strained graphene diverges logarithmically with the size of the models, when strain exceeds a relatively large threshold value of 2%. An analysis of phonon populations and lifetimes explains the divergence of the thermal conductivity as a consequence of changes in the occupation of low-frequency out-of-plane phonons and an increase in their lifetimes due to strain.
We characterized the structural and dynamical properties of the quasi-liquid layer (QLL) at the surface of ice by molecular dynamics simulations with a thermodynamically consistent water model. Our ...simulations show that for three low-index ice surfaces, only the outermost molecular layer presents short-range and midrange disorder and is diffusive. The onset temperature for normal diffusion is much higher than the glass temperature of supercooled water, although the diffusivity of the QLL is higher than that of bulk water at the corresponding temperature. The underlying subsurface layers impose an ordered template, which produces a regular patterning of the ice/water interface at any temperature and is responsible for the major differences between QLL and bulk water, especially for what concerns the dynamics and the midrange structure of the hydrogen-bonded network. Our work highlights the need for a holistic approach to the characterization of QLL, as a single experimental technique may probe only one specific feature, missing part of the complexity of this fascinating system.
We compute the lattice thermal conductivity (κ) of silicon nanowires as a function of temperature by molecular dynamics simulations. In wires with amorphous surfaces κ may reach values close to that ...of amorphous silicon and is nearly constant between 200 and 600 K; this behavior is determined by the presence of a majority of nonpropagating vibrational modes. We develop a parameter-free model that accounts for the temperature dependence observed in our simulations and provides a qualitative explanation of recent experiments.
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