Interfacial electron and phonon scattering processes in high-powered nanoscale applications.

Abstract

The overarching goal of this Truman LDRD project was to explore mechanisms of thermal transport at interfaces of nanomaterials, specifically linking the thermal conductivity and thermal boundary conductance to the structures and geometries of interfaces and boundaries. Deposition, fabrication, and post possessing procedures of nanocomposites and devices can give rise to interatomic mixing around interfaces of materials leading to stresses and imperfections that could affect heat transfer. An understanding of the physics of energy carrier scattering processes and their response to interfacial disorder will elucidate the potentials of applying these novel materials to next-generation high powered nanodevices and energy conversion applications. An additional goal of this project was to use the knowledge gained from linking interfacial structure to thermal transport in order to develop avenues to control, or "tune" the thermal transport in nanosystems.4