title: Reduced thermal conductivity in nanoengineered rough Ge and GaAs nanowires.
abstract: We model and compare the thermal conductivity of rough semiconductor nanowires (NWs) of Si, Ge, and GaAs for thermoelectric devices. On the basis of full phonon dispersion relations, the effect of NW surface roughness on thermal conductivity is derived from perturbation theory and appears as an efficient way to scatter phonons in Si, Ge, and GaAs NWs with diameter D < 200 nm. For small diameters and large root-mean-square roughness Delta, thermal conductivity is limited by surface asperities and varies quadratically as (D/Delta)(2). At room temperature, our model previously agreed with experimental observations of thermal conductivity down to 2 W m(-1) K(-1) in rough 56 nm Si NWs with Delta = 3 nm. In comparison to Si, we predict here remarkably low thermal conductivity in Ge and GaAs NWs of 0.1 and 0.4 W m(-1) K(-1), respectively, at similar roughness and diameter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. pmartin7@illinois.edu
authors.forename: Pierre N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Zlatan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Aksamija
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pop
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ravaioli
mesh_terms: D001152:Arsenicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005708:Gallium / Q000737:chemistry*; D005857:Germanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry*; D012666:Semiconductors; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D013814:Thermal Conductivity
chemical_list: D001152:Arsenicals; D005857:Germanium; C043055:gallium arsenide; D005708:Gallium; D012825:Silicon