Surface scattering analysis of phonon transport in the quantum limit using an elastic model

Abstract

We have investigated the effect on phonon energy transport in mesoscopic systems and the reduction in the thermal conductance in the quantum limit due to phonon scattering by surface roughness, using full three-dimensional elasticity theory for an elastic beam with a rectangular cross section. At low frequencies, we find power laws for the scattering coefficients that are strongly mode dependent, and different from the ω2 dependence, deriving from Rayleigh scattering of scalar waves, that is often assumed. The scattering gives contributions to the reduction in thermal conductance with the same power laws. At higher frequencies, the scattering coefficients becomes large at the onset frequency of each mode due to the flat dispersion here. We use our results to attempt a quantitative understanding of the suppression of the thermal conductance from the universal value observed in the experiment.

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