title: Thermal properties of amorphous/crystalline silicon superlattices.
abstract: Thermal transport properties of crystalline/amorphous silicon superlattices using molecular dynamics are investigated. We show that the cross-plane conductivity of the superlattices is very low and close to the conductivity of bulk amorphous silicon even for amorphous layers as thin as ≃ 6 Å. The cross-plane thermal conductivity weakly increases with temperature which is associated with a decrease of the Kapitza resistance with temperature at the crystalline/amorphous interface. This property is further investigated considering the spatial analysis of the phonon density of states in domains close to the interface. Interestingly, the crystalline/amorphous superlattices are shown to display large thermal anisotropy, according to the characteristic sizes of elaborated structures. These last results suggest that the thermal conductivity of crystalline/amorphous superlattices can be phonon engineered, providing new directions for nanostructured thermoelectrics and anisotropic materials in thermal transport.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine, LEMTA, CNRS-UMR7563, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, BP 70239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France. Materials Design SARL, 92120 Montrouge, France. CEA, DSM-IRAMIS-SPEC, Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: France-Lanord
authors.forename: Samy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merabia
authors.forename: Tristan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Albaret
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lacroix
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Termentzidis