Phonon localization in heat conduction

M N Luckyanova; J Mendoza; H Lu; B Song; S Huang; J Zhou; M Li; Y Dong; H Zhou; J Garlow; L Wu; B J Kirby; A J Grutter; A A Puretzky; Y Zhu; M S Dresselhaus; A Gossard; G Chen

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat9460

Phonon localization in heat conduction

Sci Adv. 2018 Dec 21;4(12):eaat9460. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat9460. eCollection 2018 Dec.

Authors

M N Luckyanova¹, J Mendoza¹, H Lu², B Song¹, S Huang³, J Zhou¹, M Li¹, Y Dong^{4

5}, H Zhou⁴, J Garlow⁶, L Wu⁶, B J Kirby⁷, A J Grutter⁷, A A Puretzky⁸, Y Zhu⁶, M S Dresselhaus^{3

9}, A Gossard², G Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
² Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
³ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁴ Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
⁶ Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
⁷ Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
⁸ Center for Nanophase Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Abstract

Nondiffusive phonon thermal transport, extensively observed in nanostructures, has largely been attributed to classical size effects, ignoring the wave nature of phonons. We report localization behavior in phonon heat conduction due to multiple scattering and interference events of broadband phonons, by measuring the thermal conductivities of GaAs/AlAs superlattices with ErAs nanodots randomly distributed at the interfaces. With an increasing number of superlattice periods, the measured thermal conductivities near room temperature increased and eventually saturated, indicating a transition from ballistic to diffusive transport. In contrast, at cryogenic temperatures the thermal conductivities first increased but then decreased, signaling phonon wave localization, as supported by atomistic Greenșs function simulations. The discovery of phonon localization suggests a new path forward for engineering phonon thermal transport.