2011/04/26 by Dhruv Singh, Jayathi Y. Murthy, Timothy S. Fisher · 157 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Boltzmann equation #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Optics #Phonon #Physics #Scattering #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermal conductivity #Thermal properties of materials #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3622300
published in Journal of Applied Physics 110(4) (American Institute of Physics)
arxiv created 2011/04/26 · openalex publication_date 2011/08/15 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Using the linearized Boltzmann transport equation and perturbation theory, we analyze the reduction in the intrinsic thermal conductivity of few-layer graphene sheets accounting for all possible three-phonon scattering events. Even with weak coupling between layers, a significant reduction in the thermal conductivity of the out-of-plane acoustic modes is apparent. The main effect of this weak coupling is to open many new three-phonon scattering channels that are otherwise absent in graphene. However, reflection symmetry is only weakly broken with the addition of multiple layers, and out-of-plane acoustic phonons still dominate thermal conductivity. We also find that reduction in thermal conductivity is mainly caused by lower contributions of the higher-order overtones of the fundamental out-of-plane acoustic mode. The results compare remarkably well over the entire temperature range with measurements of graphene and graphite.