Length dependence of thermal conductivity by approach-to-equilibrium molecular dynamics

Abstract

The length dependence of thermal conductivity over more than two orders of magnitude has been systematically studied for a range of materials, interatomic potentials, and temperatures using the atomistic approach-to-equilibrium molecular dynamics (AEMD) method. By comparing the values of conductivity obtained for a given supercell length and maximum phonon mean free path (MFP), we find that such values are strongly correlated, demonstrating that the AEMD calculation with a supercell of finite length actually probes the thermal conductivity corresponding to a maximum phonon MFP. As a consequence, the less pronounced length dependence usually observed for poorer thermal conductors, such as amorphous silica, is physically justified by their shorter average phonon MFP. Finally, we compare different analytical extrapolations of the conductivity to infinite length and demonstrate that the frequently used Matthiessen rule is not applicable in AEMD. An alternative extrapolation more suitable for transient-time, finite-supercell simulations is derived. This approximation scheme can also be used to classify the quality of different interatomic potential models with respect to their capability of predicting the experimental thermal conductivity.