Giant Interfacial Thermal Resistance Arising From Materials With Mismatched Phonon Structures

TL;DR

This paper reports exceptionally high interfacial thermal resistance caused by mismatched phonon structures, enabling new thermal management strategies in electronics and thermoelectric materials.

Contribution

It reveals significantly larger interfacial thermal resistances than previously reported, highlighting the role of phonon mismatch in thermal transport.

Findings

Interfacial thermal resistance up to 2×10^{-4} W^{-1}m^{2}K

Resistances are thousand times larger than prior reports

Potential for tuning thermal conductivity in composites

Abstract

Previous researches only reported very small interfacial thermal resistances at room temperature due to limitations in sample combinations and methods. Taking cognizance of the importance of mismatched phonon structures, we report values up to $2*10^{-4}W^{-1}m^{2}K$, thousand times larger than highest values reported to date. This enables substantial tuning of the thermal conductivity in composites, and does not constrain other characteristics. Our findings inspire new design strategies, for heat control in integrated circuits and thermoelectric composites, that harness thermal transport at interfaces.