Phonon Thermal Conductivity of Superlattice Nanowires for Thermoelectric Applications

Abstract

ABSTRACTAn incoherent particle model has been developed to predict the phonon thermal conductivity of nanowires and superlattice nanowires. It is argued that the surface roughness of most real nanowires prevents the formation of idealized confined dispersion relations for typical temperatures and diameters. Instead, the three-dimensional bulk dispersion is used, thus addressing only classical size effects. Four adjustable parameters capture the effects of diameter, superlattice, Umklapp, impurity, and alloy scattering. Predictions are compared with experimental data for nanowires and superlattice nanowires down to 22 nm diameter and 20 K, and are in good agreement above ∼40 nm diameter. The analysis suggests that ideal low thermal conductivity nanowires for thermoelectric applications would have small-diameter, alternating alloy segments that are acoustically dissimilar but electrically similar.