Alloy-like behaviour of the thermal conductivity of non-symmetric superlattices

Abstract

In this work, we show a phenomenological alloy-like fit of the thermal conductivity of (A)d1:(B)d2 superlattices with d1 /= d2, i.e. non-symmetric structure. The presented method is a generalization of the Norbury rule of the summation of thermal resistivities in alloy compounds. Namely, we show that this approach can be also extended to describe the thermal properties of crystalline and ordered-system composed by two or more elements, and, has a potentially much wider application range. Using this approximation we estimate that the interface thermal resistance depends on the period and the ratio of materials that form the superlattice structure