Anisotropic thermal conductivity of Ge quantum-dot and symmetrically strained Si/Ge superlattices

We report the first experimental results on the temperature dependent in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities of a symmetrically strained Si/Ge superlattice and a Ge quantum-dot superlattice measured by the two-wire 3 omega method. The measured thermal conductivity values are highly anisotropic and are significantly reduced compared to the bulk thermal conductivity of the structures. The results can be explained by using heat transport models based on the Boltzmann transport equation with partially diffusive scattering of the phonons at the superlattice interfaces.