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Prediction and measurement of thermal transport across interfaces between isotropic solids and graphitic materials

Journal of Heat Transfer

Norris, Pamela M.; Smoyer, Justin L.; Duda, John C.; Hopkins, Patrick E.

Due to the high intrinsic thermal conductivity of carbon allotropes, there have been many attempts to incorporate such structures into existing thermal abatement technologies. In particular, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphitic materials (i.e., graphite and graphene flakes or stacks) have garnered much interest due to the combination of both their thermal and mechanical properties. However, the introduction of these carbon-based nanostructures into thermal abatement technologies greatly increases the number of interfaces per unit length within the resulting composite systems. Consequently, thermal transport in these systems is governed as much by the interfaces between the constituent materials as it is by the materials themselves. This paper reports the behavior of phononic thermal transport across interfaces between isotropic thin films and graphite substrates. Elastic and inelastic diffusive transport models are formulated to aid in the prediction of conductance at a metal-graphite interface. The temperature dependence of the thermal conductance at Au-graphite interfaces is measured via transient thermoreflectance from 78 to 400 K. It is found that different substrate surface preparations prior to thin film deposition have a significant effect on the conductance of the interface between film and substrate. © 2012 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2012
ScopusOSTI

Interfacial electron and phonon scattering processes in high-powered nanoscale applications

Hopkins, Patrick E.

The overarching goal of this Truman LDRD project was to explore mechanisms of thermal transport at interfaces of nanomaterials, specifically linking the thermal conductivity and thermal boundary conductance to the structures and geometries of interfaces and boundaries. Deposition, fabrication, and post possessing procedures of nanocomposites and devices can give rise to interatomic mixing around interfaces of materials leading to stresses and imperfections that could affect heat transfer. An understanding of the physics of energy carrier scattering processes and their response to interfacial disorder will elucidate the potentials of applying these novel materials to next-generation high powered nanodevices and energy conversion applications. An additional goal of this project was to use the knowledge gained from linking interfacial structure to thermal transport in order to develop avenues to control, or 'tune' the thermal transport in nanosystems.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
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Controlling thermal conductance through quantum dot roughening at interfaces

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Hopkins, Patrick E.; Duda, John C.; Petz, Christopher W.; Floro, Jerrold A.

We examine the fundamental phonon mechanisms affecting the interfacial thermal conductance across a single layer of quantum dots (QDs) on a planar substrate. We synthesize a series of GexSi1-x QDs by heteroepitaxial self-assembly on Si surfaces and modify the growth conditions to provide QD layers with different root-mean-square (rms) roughness levels in order to quantify the effects of roughness on thermal transport. We measure the thermal boundary conductance (hK) with time-domain thermoreflectance. The trends in thermal boundary conductance show that the effect of the QDs on hK are more apparent at elevated temperatures, while at low temperatures, the QD patterning does not drastically affect hK. The functional dependence of hK with rms surface roughness reveals a trend that suggests that both vibrational mismatch and changes in the localized phonon transport near the interface contribute to the reduction in h K. We find that QD structures with rms roughnesses greater than 4 nm decrease hK at Si interfaces by a factor of 1.6. We develop an analytical model for phonon transport at rough interfaces based on a diffusive scattering assumption and phonon attenuation that describes the measured trends in hK. This indicates that the observed reduction in thermal conductivity in SiGe quantum dot superlattices is primarily due to the increased physical roughness at the interfaces, which creates additional phonon resistive processes beyond the interfacial vibrational mismatch. © 2011 American Physical Society.

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TYPE Journal Article YEAR 2011
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Phonon considerations in the reduction of thermal conductivity in phononic crystals

Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing

Hopkins, Patrick E.; Phinney, Leslie M.; Rakich, Peter T.; Olsson, Roy H.; El-Kady, I.

Periodic porous structures offer unique material solutions to thermoelectric applications. With recent interest in phonon band gap engineering, these periodic structures can result in reduction of the phonon thermal conductivity due to coherent destruction of phonon modes characteristic in phononic crystals. In this paper, we numerically study phonon transport in periodic porous silicon phononic crystal structures. We develop a model for the thermal conductivity of phononic crystal that accounts for both coherent and incoherent phonon effects, and show that the phonon thermal conductivity is reduced to less than 4% of the bulk value for Si at room temperature. This has substantial impact on thermoelectric applications, where the efficiency of thermoelectric materials is inversely proportional to the thermal conductivity. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2011
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Manipulation of thermal phonons: A phononic crystal route to High-ZT thermoelectrics

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

El-Kady, I.; Su, Mehmet F.; Reinke, Charles M.; Hopkins, Patrick E.; Goettler, Drew; Leseman, Zayd C.; Shaner, Eric A.; Olsson, Roy H.

Phononic crystals (PnCs) are acoustic devices composed of a periodic arrangement of scattering centers embedded in a homogeneous background matrix with a lattice spacing on the order of the acoustic wavelength. When properly designed, a superposition of Bragg and Mie resonant scattering in the crystal results in the opening of a frequency gap over which there can be no propagation of elastic waves in the crystal, regardless of direction. In a fashion reminiscent of photonic lattices, PnC patterning results in a controllable redistribution of the phononic density of states. This property makes PnCs a particularly attractive platform for manipulating phonon propagation. In this communication, we discuss the profound physical implications this has on the creation of novel thermal phenomena, including the alteration of the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of materials, resulting in high-ZT materials and highly-efficient thermoelectric cooling and energy harvesting. © 2011 SPIE.

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TYPE Conference YEAR 2011
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Results 1–25 of 60
Results 1–25 of 60