Abstract
Surface phonon-polaritons (SPhPs) are evanescent electromagnetic waves that can propagate distances orders of magnitude longer than the typical mean free paths of phonons and electrons. Therefore, they are expected to be powerful heat carriers capable of significantly enhancing the in-plane thermal conductance of polar nanostructures. In this work, we show that a SiO/Si (10 m thick)/SiO layered structure efficiently enhances the SPhP heat transport, such that its in-plane thermal conductance is ten times higher than the corresponding one of a single SiO film, due to the coupling of SPhPs propagating along both of its polar SiO nanolayers. The obtained results thus show that the proposed three-layer structure can outperform the in-plane thermal performance of a single suspended film while improving significantly its mechanical stability.
Highlights
As the microfabrication technology has rapidly progressed and the integration density of electrical circuits has been enhanced dramatically, the local heating has become a critical issue because it can damage the electrical devices or lower their performance [1]
Chen et al have reported that the Surface phonon-polaritons (SPhPs) thermal conductivity of a 40 nm-thick thin film of amorphous SiO2 suspended in air is 4 Wm−1K−1 at 500 K, which is higher than its bulk phonon thermal conductivity [11]
We report SPhP dispersion relation of a structure consisting of a 10 μm-thick silicon (Si) layer sandwiched between two SiO2 layers
Summary
As the microfabrication technology has rapidly progressed and the integration density of electrical circuits has been enhanced dramatically, the local heating has become a critical issue because it can damage the electrical devices or lower their performance [1]. SPhPs propagate with infrared frequencies over distances in the range of hundreds of micrometers along the interface of nanostructures [18]. They could be additional energy carriers capable of enhancing the in-plane thermal conductivity [17,19], especially when it decreases as the system size reduces to the nano scale [11,12,13]. An experimental demonstration was conducted by Tranchant et al [24] They reported that the in-plane thermal conductivity of a SiO2 film increases by more than 50% of that of bulk SiO2 for a film thickness less than 50 nm
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
