Ballistic-diffusive heat-conduction equations

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Mar 12;86(11):2297-300. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2297.

Abstract

We present new heat-conduction equations, named ballistic-diffusive equations, which are derived from the Boltzmann equation. We show that the new equations are a better approximation than the Fourier law and the Cattaneo equation for heat conduction at the scales when the device characteristic length, such as film thickness, is comparable to the heat-carrier mean free path and/or the characteristic time, such as laser-pulse width, is comparable to the heat-carrier relaxation time.