Suppressed phonon conduction by geometrically induced evolution of transport characteristics from Brownian motion into Levy flight

Abstract

Despite extensive research on quasi-ballistic phonon transport, anomalous phonon transport is still observed in numerous nanostructures. Herein, we investigate the transport characteristics of two sets of samples: straight beams and nanoladders comprising two straight beams orthogonally connected with bridges. A combination of experiments and analysis with a Boltzmann transport model suggests that the boundary scattering within the bridges considerably dictates the distribution of phonon mean free paths, despite its negligible contribution to the net heat flux. Statistical analysis of those boundary scatterings shows that phonons with large axial angles are filtered into bridges, creating dead spaces in the line-of-sight channels. Such redistribution induces Levy walk conduction along the line-of-sight channels, causing the remaining phonons within the bridges to exhibit Brownian motion. Phonon conduction in the nanoladders is suppressed below that of the straight beams with equivalent cross-sectional areas due to trapped phonons within the bridges. Our work reveals the origin of unusual thermal conductivity suppression at the nanoscale, suggesting a method to modulate phonon conduction via systematic nanostructuring.