Phonon Trapping in Pearl-Necklace-Shaped Silicon Nanowires

Chunyang Miao; Guoan Tai; Jianxin Zhou; Wanlin Guo

doi:10.1002/smll.201501956

Phonon Trapping in Pearl-Necklace-Shaped Silicon Nanowires

Small. 2015 Dec 22;11(48):6411-5. doi: 10.1002/smll.201501956. Epub 2015 Nov 18.

Authors

Chunyang Miao¹, Guoan Tai¹, Jianxin Zhou¹, Wanlin Guo¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of MOE, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Institute of Nano Science of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China.

PMID: 26577864
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201501956

Abstract

A pearl-necklace-shaped silicon nanowire, in contrast to a smooth nanowire, presents a much lower thermal conductivity due to the phonon trapping effect. By precisely controlling the pearl size and density, this reduction can be more than 70% for the structures designed in the study, which provides a unique approach for designing high-performance nanoscale thermoelectric devices.

Keywords: pearl necklace morphology; phonon trapping; silicon nanowires; thermal conductivity; thermoelectricity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't