Phonon localization in surface-roughness dominated nanowires
Abstract
Studies of possible localization of phonons in nanomaterials have gained importance in recent years in the context of thermoelectricity where phonon-localization can reduce thermal conductivity, thereby improving the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. However, despite significant efforts, phonon-localization has not yet been observed experimentally in real materials. Here we propose that surface-roughness dominated nanowires are ideal candidates to observe localization of phonons, and show numerically that the space and time evolution of the energy generated by a heat-pulse injected at a given point shows clear signatures of phonon localization. We suggest that the same configuration might allow experimental observation of localization of phonons. Our results confirm the universality in the surface-roughness dominated regime proposed earlier, which allows us to characterize the strength of disorder by a single parameter combining the width of the wire as well as the mean height of the corrugation and its correlation length.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1904.09271,
title = {Phonon localization in surface-roughness dominated nanowires},
author = {P. Markos and K. A. Muttalib},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.09271},
year = {2019}
}