Temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of thin silicon nanowires

Davide Donadio; Giulia Galli

doi:10.1021/nl903268y

Temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity of thin silicon nanowires

Nano Lett. 2010 Mar 10;10(3):847-51. doi: 10.1021/nl903268y.

Authors

Davide Donadio¹, Giulia Galli

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, avis, California 95616, USA. ddonadio@ucdavis.edu

PMID: 20163124
DOI: 10.1021/nl903268y

Abstract

We compute the lattice thermal conductivity (kappa) of silicon nanowires as a function of temperature by molecular dynamics simulations. In wires with amorphous surfaces kappa 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.

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Computer Simulation
Models, Chemical*
Nanostructures / chemistry*
Nanostructures / ultrastructure*
Nanotechnology / methods*
Particle Size
Silicon / chemistry*
Temperature
Thermal Conductivity

Substances

Silicon