Defect Scattering Can Lead to Enhanced Phonon Transport at Nanoscale

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Apr 17

PMID 38632242

Authors

Yue Hu

Jiaxuan Xu

Xiulin Ruan

Hua Bao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Defect scattering is well known to suppress thermal transport. In this study, however, we perform both molecular dynamics and Boltzmann transport equation calculations, to demonstrate that introducing defect scattering in nanoscale heating zone could surprisingly enhance thermal conductance of the system by up to 75%. We further reveal that the heating zone without defects yields directional nonequilibrium with overpopulated oblique-propagating phonons which suppress thermal transport, while introducing defects redirect phonons randomly to restore directional equilibrium, thereby enhancing thermal conductance. We demonstrate that defect scattering can enable such thermal transport enhancement in a wide range of temperatures, materials, and sizes, and offer an unconventional strategy for enhancing thermal transport via the manipulation of phonon directional nonequilibrium.

Citing Articles

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Sheng Y, Zhu H, Xie S, Lv Q, Xie H, Wang H Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1970.

PMID: 40000655 PMC: 11861899. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57224-8.

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