Minimum Thermal Conductivity of Superlattices

1999/07/31 by M. V. Simkin, G. D. Mahan · 4 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mtrl-sci

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.927

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 927 (2000) · new results added, to appear in PRL

arxiv created 1999/11/23 · openalex publication_date 2000/01/31 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The phonon thermal conductivity of a multilayer is calculated for transport perpendicular to the layers. There is a crossover between particle transport for thick layers to wave transport for thin layers. The calculations show that the conductivity has a minimum value for a layer thickness somewhat smaller then the mean free path of the phonons.

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