Hybrid Thermal Behavior from Thermoelectrics to Heat Sinking of a Thin Si Membrane with Stretched Ge Quantum Dots

Abstract

AbstractA membranous nanomaterial showing, for the first time, a hybrid thermal behavior between insulating and dissipative regimes is proposed with applications in both thermoelectrics (low thermal conductivity) and passive heat sinking (high thermal conductivity). While other compounds could be chosen, the nanomaterial is made up of a thin Si membrane covered by Ge quantum dots (QDs) with epitaxial facets. The QDs are voluntarily stretched in the direction [010] or y parallel to the membrane to form elongated islands. The broken symmetry induces an exalted phonon wave-guiding in y. Therefore, when hot and cold junctions are connected to the membrane following the stretching direction [010], the anisotropic thermal conductivity shows a significant exaltation with respect to the in-plane orthogonal direction [100] or x, where the Ge islands have the smallest average size. An example nanomaterial is obtained by repetition of molecular supercell slabs containing 4348 atoms each. The thermal conductivity shows a marked exaltation higher than 22 folds, from 1.5 to 33.5 W/m/K when the connection direction between the hot and cold junctions is rotated by 90° from x to y. Therefore, the nanomaterial presents a changing thermal behavior from insulation to passive dissipation when the heat propagation direction is modified from x to y. As a result, it could be used for the design of passive heat sinkers (from the phonons) when the two junctions are connected following [010]. In contrast, a thermal insulating behavior appears when the junctions are linked following [100]. This direction can be as well used for cooling applications. However, in this case, cooling is differently generated using the Peltier effect (from the electrons). Seebeck generation can be also envisioned in the direction [100].