Nanostructuring Expands Thermal Limits

Abstract

Scientists and engineers can exploit nanostructures to manipulate thermal transport in solids. This is possible because the dominant heat carriers in nonmetals - crystal vibrations (or phonons) - have characteristic lengths in the nanometer range. We review research where this approach is used and propose future research directions. For instance, concepts such as phonon filtering, correlated scattering and waveguiding could expand the extremes of thermal transport in both the insulating and conducting limits. This will have major implications on energy conservation and conversion, information technology, and thermal management systems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA575327

Entities

People

  • Arun Majumdar
  • Robert Y Wang
  • Woochul Kim

Organizations

  • University of California, Berkeley

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Carbon Nanotubes
  • Energy Conservation
  • Energy Transfer
  • Filtration
  • Fullerenes
  • Heat Transfer
  • Information Systems
  • Long Wavelengths
  • Low Temperature
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Nanostructures
  • Nonmetals
  • Scattering
  • Self Assembled Monolayers
  • Thermal Conductivity

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics