Thermal transport size effects in silicon membranes featuring nanopillars as local resonators

Abstract

Silicon membranes patterned by nanometer-scale pillars standing on the surface provide a practical platform for thermal conductivity reduction by resonance hybridization. Using molecular simulations, we investigate the effect of nanopillar size, unit-cell size, and finite-structure size on the net capacity of the local resonators in reducing the thermal conductivity of the base membrane. The results indicate that the thermal conductivity reduction increases as the ratio of the volumetric size of a unit nanopillar to that of the base membrane is increased, and the intensity of this reduction varies with unit-cell size at a rate dependent on the volumetric ratio. Considering sample size, the resonance-induced thermal conductivity drop is shown to increase slightly with the number of unit cells until it would eventually level off.