Diffuson-driven Ultralow Thermal Conductivity in Amorphous Nb2O5 Thin Films

TL;DR

This study reveals that amorphous Nb2O5 thin films exhibit ultralow thermal conductivity dominated by diffusons, with stability against oxygen vacancies, advancing understanding of heat transport in amorphous materials for electronic applications.

Contribution

First experimental and theoretical investigation of thermal conductivity in amorphous Nb2O5 thin films, highlighting diffuson-dominated heat transport and surpassing the amorphous limit models.

Findings

Ultralow thermal conductivity observed in films as thin as 48 nm.

Thermal transport dominated by diffusons, with negligible propagons contribution.

Thermal conductivity remains stable despite variations in oxygen vacancy concentration.

Abstract

Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) has been extensively reported for applications of electrochemical energy storage, memristors, solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and electrochromic devices. The thermal properties of Nb2O5 play a critical role in device performance of these applications. However, very few studies on the thermal properties of Nb2O5 have been reported and a fundamental understanding of heat transport in Nb2O5 is still lacking. The present work closes this gap and provides the first study of thermal conductivity of amorphous Nb2O5 thin films. Ultralow thermal conductivity is observed without any size effect in films as thin as 48 nm, which indicates that propagons contribute negligibly to the thermal conductivity and that the thermal transport is dominated by diffusons. Density-function-theory (DFT) simulations combined with a diffuson-mediated minimum-thermal-conductivity model confirms this finding. Additionally, the measured thermal conductivity is lower than the amorphous limit (Cahill model), which proves that the diffuson model works better than the Cahill model to describe the thermal conduction mechanism in the amorphous Nb2O5 thin films. Additionally, the thermal conductivity does not change significantly with oxygen vacancy concentration. This stable and low thermal conductivity facilitates excellent performance for applications such as memristors.