Heat conduction through a trapped solid: effect of structural changes on thermal conductance

TL;DR

This study investigates how structural changes, such as layering transitions and dislocations, affect thermal conductance in a trapped solid using simulations and analytical methods.

Contribution

It reveals the impact of layering transitions and dislocations on thermal resistance in a confined solid, combining molecular dynamics and analytical calculations.

Findings

Layering transitions cause sharp jumps in contact thermal resistance.

Dislocations significantly increase the thermal resistance.

Analytical and simulation results agree on the resistance behavior.

Abstract

We study the conduction of heat across a narrow solid strip trapped by an external potential and in contact with its own liquid. Structural changes, consisting of addition and deletion of crystal layers in the trapped solid, are produced by altering the depth of the confining potential. Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and, wherever possible, simple analytical calculations are used to obtain the thermal resistance in the liquid, solid and interfacial regions (Kapitza or contact resistance). We show that these layering transitions are accompanied by sharp jumps in the contact thermal resistance. Dislocations, if present, are shown to increase the thermal resistance of the strip drastically.