Thermal Conductivity of Diameter-Modulated Silicon Nanowires Within a Frequency-Dependent Model for Phonon Boundary Scattering

Modulated nanowires have been proposed as candidates for efficient thermoelectric applications. It has been previously shown within the low-temperature ballistic regime of phonon transport that the thermal conductivity can be significantly reduced when the width of the nanowire is modulated. Here, we report on the thermal conductivity of modulated Si nanowires calculated within a kinetic theory model. The size dependence is taken into account through the sampling of k-points in the first Brillouin zone and a frequency-dependent calculation of the boundary scattering length. It has been found that the thermal conductivity of modulated nanowires can be drastically reduced compared with that of nanowires with constant width. Interestingly, the thermal conductivity is even smaller than that of corresponding straight wires with width equal to the smallest width in the modulated nanowires. The dramatic decrease of the thermal conductivity of modulated nanowires is attributed to their small transmissivity.