Issue 30, 2018

Coherent control of thermal phonon transport in van der Waals superlattices

Abstract

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures are a central focus of materials science and condensed matter physics due to the novel physical phenomena and properties obtained by precisely stacking heterogeneous atomically thin layers. vdW heterostructures are expected to allow for the coherent manipulation of THz lattice vibrations and hence heat conduction due to the ability to precisely control chemical composition at the atomic scale, but little work has focused on thermal transport in these materials. Here, we report an ab initio study of thermal transport in vdW superlattices consisting of alternating transition metal dichalcogenide atomic layers. Our calculations show that the lattice vibrational spectrum and scattering rates can be precisely manipulated by the choice of each atomically thin layer, resulting in materials with novel properties such as large thermal anisotropies approaching 200 and ultralow cross-plane thermal conductivities comparable to those of amorphous materials. Our work demonstrates how coherent manipulation of phonons in vdW superlattices can expand the property space beyond that occupied by natural materials and suggests an experimental route to realize these properties.

Graphical abstract: Coherent control of thermal phonon transport in van der Waals superlattices

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 मार्च 2018
Accepted
07 मई 2018
First published
21 मई 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 14432-14440

Coherent control of thermal phonon transport in van der Waals superlattices

R. Guo, Y. Jho and A. J. Minnich, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 14432 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR02150C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements