Characteristics of phonon transmission across epitaxial interfaces: a lattice dynamic study

Abstract

Phonon transmission across epitaxial interfaces is studied within the lattice dynamic approach. The transmission shows weak dependence on frequency for the lattice wave with a fixed angle of incidence. The dependence on azimuth angle is found to be related to the symmetry of the boundary interface. The transmission varies smoothly with the change of the incident angle. A critical angle of incidence exists when the phonon is incident from the side with large group velocities to the side with low ones. No significant mode conversion is observed among different acoustic wave branches at the interface, except when the incident angle is near the critical value. Our theoretical result of the Kapitza conductance $G_{K}$ across the Si-Ge (100) interface at temperature $T=200 $K is $4.6\times10^{8} {\rm WK}^{-1}{\rmm}^{-2}$. A scaling law $G_K \propto T^{2.87}$ at low temperature is also reported. Based on the features of transmission obtained within lattice dynamic approach, we propose a simplified formula for thermal conductanceacross the epitaxial interface. A reasonable consistency is found between the calculated values and the experimentally measured ones.