Heat transfer phenomena in multilayer structures have gained interest due to their promising use in thermal insulation and thermoelectricity applications. In such systems, nanostructuring has been used to introduce moderate interfacial density, and it has been demonstrated that interfacial thermal resistance plays a crucial role in reducing thermal conductivity κ. Nevertheless, the main constraint for actual applications is related to their tiny size because they are extremely thin to establish appreciable temperature gradients. In this work, by severe plastic deformation process of accumulative roll bonding (ARB), a 250 µm thick Cu-Nb multilayer containing more than 8000 interfaces with periods below 40 nm was obtained, enabling the production of bulk metallic nanolaminates with ultralow κ. Multilayers present an ultralow κ of ∼0.81 W/mK at 300 K, which is 100 times smaller than its Cu-Nb bulk counterpart, and even lower than the amorphous lattice limit for the Cu-Nb thin film system. By using electron diffusive mismatch model (EDMM), we argue that both electrons diffusively scattering at interface and those ballistically crossing the constituents are responsible for heat conduction in the Cu-Nb multilayers at nanoscale. Hence, ARB Cu-Nb multilayers are intriguing candidate materials which can prove avenues to achieve stable ultralow κ thermal barriers for robust applications.
Keywords: accumulative roll bonding; high performance thermal barriers; metallic multilayer composites; nanoscale heat transfer; thermal boundary resistance.