11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
▲ [13a-N106-4] Quantum of Thermal Conductance of Nanofilms due to Surface-Phonon Polaritons
Keywords:Surface phonon-polaritons, Heat transport, Quantum of thermal conductance
The miniaturization of electronic devices with enhanced rates of operation requires a profound understanding of their thermal performance. This is particularly critical in nanofilms, due to the reduction of their thermal conductance as their thickness is scaled down. The fingerprint of the two-dimensional heat conduction in nanofilms has been the quantization of their conductance in integer multiples of a characteristic quantum, which was predicted theoretically and validated experimentally for both phonons and electrons undergoing ballistic propagation at low temperature (< 10 K). However, to date, this quantization has been not explored yet for surface phonon-polaritons (SPhPs), which are powerful energy carriers able to significantly enhance the thermal conductance of polar nanofilms due to their huge propagation distance (> 1 mm) at room temperature.
In this work, we demonstrate that the thermal conductance per unit width of a thin enough polar nanofilm supporting the propagation of SPhPs along its interfaces is quantized. As the film thickness decreases, this quantization arises from the convergence of the dispersion relation of SPhPs to that of light in vacuum, while their propagation length increases, which ensures the ballistic propagation of SPhPs in a wide frequency spectrum. This two-dimensional quantum of thermal conductance appears in thin films of SiN thinner than 50 nm and therefore its observation could be achieved with the current experimental capabilities.
In this work, we demonstrate that the thermal conductance per unit width of a thin enough polar nanofilm supporting the propagation of SPhPs along its interfaces is quantized. As the film thickness decreases, this quantization arises from the convergence of the dispersion relation of SPhPs to that of light in vacuum, while their propagation length increases, which ensures the ballistic propagation of SPhPs in a wide frequency spectrum. This two-dimensional quantum of thermal conductance appears in thin films of SiN thinner than 50 nm and therefore its observation could be achieved with the current experimental capabilities.