The in-plane electrical and thermal conductivities of several polycrystalline platinum and gold nanofilms with different thicknesses are measured in a temperature range between the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77K) and room temperature by using the direct current heating method. The result shows that both the electrical and thermal conductivities of the nanofilms reduce greatly compared with their corresponding bulk values. However, the electrical conductivity drop is considerably greater than the thermal conductivity drop, which indicates that the influence of the internal grain boundary on heat transport is different from that of charge transport, hence leading to the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. We build an electron relaxation model based on Matthiessen's rule to analyse the thermal conductivity and employ the Mayadas & Shatzkes theory to analyse the electrical conductivity. Moreover, a modified Wiedemann-Franz law is provided in this paper, the obtained results from which are in good agreement with the experimental data.
The phonon relaxation and heat conduction in one-dimensional Fermi Pasta-Ulam (FPU) β lattices are studied by using molecular dynamics simulations. The phonon relaxation rate, which dominates the length dependence of the FPU β lattice, is first calculated from the energy autoeorrelation function for different modes at various temperatures through equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the relaxation rate as a function of wave number k is proportional to k^1.688, which leads to a N^0.41 divergence of the thermal conductivity in the framework of Green-Kubo relation. This is also in good agreement with the data obtained by non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations which estimate the length dependence exponent of the thermal conductivity as 0.415. Our results confirm the N^2/5 divergence in one-dimensional FPU β lattices. The effects of the heat flux on the thermal conductivity are also studied by imposing different temperature differences on the two ends of the lattices. We find that the thermal conductivity is insensitive to the heat flux under our simulation conditions. It implies that the linear response theory is applicable towards the heat conduction in one-dimensional FPU β lattices.
As a fundamental theory of heat transfer, Fourier's law is valid for most traditional conditions. Research interest in non-Fourier heat conditions is mainly focused on heat wave phenomena in non-steady states. Recently, the thermomass theory posited that, for steady states, non-Fourier heat conduction behavior could also be observed under ultra-high heat flux conditions at low ambient temperatures. Significantly, this is due to thermomass inertia. We report on heat conduction in metallic nanofilms from large currents at low temperatures; heat fluxes of more than 1×1010 W m 2 were used. The measured average temperature of the nanofilm is larger than that based on Fourier's law, with temperature differences increasing as heat flux increased and ambient temperature decreased. Experimental results for different film samples at different ambient temperatures reveal that non-Fourier behavior exists in metallic nanofilms in agreement with predictions from thermomass theory.
Using a transient thermoreflectance (TTR) technique, several Au films with different thicknesses on glass and SiC substrates are measured for thermal characterization of metMlic nano-films, including the electron phonon coupling factor G, interfazial thermal resistance R, and thermal conductivity Ks of the substrate. The rear heating-front detecting (RF) method is used to ensure the femtosecond temporal resolution. An intense laser beam is focused on the rear surface to heat the film, and another weak laser beam is focused on the very spot of the front surface to detect the change in the electron temperature. By varying the optical path delay between the two beams, a complete electron temperature profile can be scanned. Different from the normally used single-layer model, the double-layer model involving interfaciM thermal resistance is studied here. The electron temperature cooling profile can be affected by the electron energy transfer into the substrate or the electron-phonon interactions in the metallic films. For multiple-target optimization, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to obtain both G and R. The experimental result gives a deep understanding of the mechanism of ultra-fast heat transfer in metals.
At present,there have been few direct molecular dynamics simulations on the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline nanofilms.In this paper,we generate polycrystalline argon nanofilms with random grain shape using the three-dimensional Voronoi tessellation method.We calculate the out-of-plane thermal conductivity of a polycrystalline argon nanofilm at different temperatures and film thicknesses by the Muller-Plathe method.The results indicate that the polycrystalline thermal conductivity is lower than that of the bulk single crystal and the single-crystal nanofilm of argon.This can be attributed to the phonon mean-free-path limit imposed by the average grain size as well as the grain boundary thermal resistance due to the existence many grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials.Also,the out-of-plane thermal conductivity of the polycrystalline argon nanofilm is insensitive to temperature and film thickness,and is mainly dominated by the grain size,which is quite different from the case of single-crystal nanofilms.