Tuning Thermal Transport in a Crystalline Solid Using Epitaxially Embedded Nanoparticles

Abstract

Since the discovery of electricity, research on charge transport in materials has pushed the extremes of tuning electrical conductivity. Today, material manipulations have only achieved a limited variation in thermal transport in a solid. In this study we theoretically demonstrated the effects of tuning thermal transport in crystalline solids by using epitaxially embedding nanoparticles. By adjusting particle size, size distributions, and concentration of nanoparticles, phonon transport in solids can be spectrally-selective scattered, and one can acquire a material with desired thermal properties. Our simulation is based on the thermal conductivity of ErAs nanoparticles epitaxially embedded inside an InGaAs alloy matrix.