title: Length Scale of Diffusive Phonon Transport in Suspended Thin Silicon Nanowires.
abstract: Recent experimental advances have revealed that the mean free path (mfp) of phonons contributing significantly to thermal transport in crystalline semiconductors can be several microns long. Almost all of these experiments are based on bulk and thin film materials and use techniques that are not directly applicable to nanowires. By developing a process with which we could fabricate multiple electrically contacted and suspended segments on individual heavily doped smooth Silicon nanowires, we measured phonon transport across varying length scales using a DC self-heating technique. Our measurements show that diffusive thermal transport is still valid across O(100) nm length scales, supporting the diffuse nature of phonon-boundary scattering even on smooth nanowire surfaces. Our work also showcases the self-heating technique as an important alternative to the thermal bridge technique to measure phonon transport across short length scales relevant to mapping the phonon mfp spectrum in nanowires.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich , Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Shyamprasad
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2278-1368
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: N Raja
authors.affiliation: Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich , Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rhyner
authors.affiliation: Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich , Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Kantawong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vuttivorakulchai
authors.affiliation: Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich , Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luisier
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich , Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dimos
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poulikakos