Heat conduction tuning by wave nature of phonons

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 3; no. 8; p. e1700027
• Main Authors: Maire, Jeremie, Anufriev, Roman, Yanagisawa, Ryoto, Ramiere, Aymeric, Volz, Sebastian, Nomura, Masahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 04.08.2017; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Condensed Matter; Engineering Sciences; Materials Science; Mechanics; Micro and nanotechnologies; Microelectronics; Physical Sciences; Physics; SciAdv r-articles; Thermics
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700027

Perfectly periodic structures modify the transport properties of heat carriers by interference effect and hinder heat transport. The world communicates to our senses of vision, hearing, and touch in the language of waves, because light, sound, and even heat essentially consist of microscopic vibrations of different media. The wave nature of light and sound has been extensively investigated over the past century and is now widely used in modern technology. However, the wave nature of heat has been the subject of mostly theoretical studies because its experimental demonstration, let alone practical use, remains challenging due to its extremely short wavelengths. We show a possibility to use the wave nature of heat for thermal conductivity tuning via spatial short-range order in phononic crystal nanostructures. Our experimental and theoretical results suggest that interference of thermal phonons occurs in strictly periodic nanostructures and slows the propagation of heat. This finding expands the methodology of heat transfer engineering to the wave nature of heat.