Molecular dynamics simulations of phonon thermal transport in low-dimensional silicon structures
低維矽結構中聲子熱輸運的分子動子學模擬
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis
Author(s)
Detail(s)
Awarding Institution | |
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Award date | 16 Jul 2012 |
Link(s)
Permanent Link | https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/theses/theses(87f8cac6-0e8f-42e0-89fe-5385562300cf).html |
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Other link(s) | Links |
Abstract
Semiconductor silicon (Si) is one of the best materials for microelectronic/
optoelectronic and photovoltaic device applications and has thus become the
cornerstone of the semiconductor industry. Low-dimensional Si nanostructures are
being increasingly adopted in various Si-based technologies, attracting great
attention to their thermal transport properties. In Si-based materials, thermal energy
is predominantly transported by phonons (quantized lattice vibrations). Although the
reduction in thermal conductivity is a challenge with respect to the thermal
management of nanoelectronic devices used in computer processors, it can be
beneficial for thermoelectric (TE) energy conversion.
A deeper understanding of thermal transport at the nanoscale is strategically
important to achieve the optimal use of low-dimensional Si structures in emerging
applications. In this work, we systematically investigate the phonon thermal
transport in Si nanostructures, including zero-dimensional nanoclusters,
one-dimensional nanowires, and two-dimensional nanosheets, through the use of the
equilibrium molecular dynamics method.
We first study the structural transition and phonon thermal conductivity of Si
nanoclusters with different diameters. When the diameter of the cluster increases
from 1.80 nm to 3.46 nm, the cluster structure changes from an amorphous state to a
crystalline state, which is consistent with the reported experimental result. The
calculated thermal conductivity of the Si nanoclusters is two to three orders of
magnitude lower than that of bulk Si. In addition, size- and temperature-dependent effects on the thermal conductivity of the Si nanoclusters are also observed because
of the remarkable phonon-boundary scattering and phonon-phonon scattering,
respectively.
For the one-dimensional nanostructured system, we focus on the effects of
surface hydrogenation and nitrogenation on the phonon thermal conductivity of Si
nanowires (SiNWs) at room temperature. We find that the phonon thermal
conductivity of SiNWs is approximately two orders of magnitude lower than that of
bulk Si, and it can be significantly affected by surface functionalization. Surface
hydrogen passivation can saturate the dangling bonds and reduce the lattice
mismatch between the inner and surface layers of SiNWs, thereby increasing the
thermal conductivity to some degree compared with that of pure SiNWs without
surface passivation. However, surface nitrogen passivation can significantly reduce
the thermal conductivity. In particular, 50% surface nitrogenation on SiNWs can
induce thermal conductivity attenuation by approximately 75% compared with that
of fully hydrogenated SiNWs. This reduction in the thermal conductivity arises
mainly from phonon scattering due to defects near the surface, as well as the
suppression of some vibrational modes due to surface nitrogenation. Our simulations
clearly demonstrate the importance of surface chemistry or functionalization in
tuning the thermal conductivity, which has profound implications for TE applications
of SiNWs.
We also investigate the phonon thermal conductivity of two-dimensional,
graphene-like silicene sheets at room temperature and find that the in-plane thermal conductivity of silicene sheets is approximately one order of magnitude lower than
that of bulk Si. We further determine the effects of vacancy defects on the thermal
conductivity and observe their significant diminution due to the effect of
phonon-defect scattering; the underlying physical mechanism is explained from the
phonon spectral analysis. Our results show that phonon transport in silicene sheets is
strongly affected by vacancy concentration, vacancy size, and vacancy boundary
shape. These findings can be used to guide the defect engineering of the thermal
properties of low-dimensional Si materials.
This thesis could be helpful in furthering the understanding of phonon thermal
transport in low-dimensional Si nanostructures and may serve as a highly useful
experimental guide in Si-based TE applications as well as in other thermal-related
applications.
- Thermal conductivity, Computer simulation, Nanostructures, Phonons, Low-dimensional semiconductors, Molecular dynamics