Thermal transport in lattice-constrained 2D hybrid graphene heterostructures

The thermal transport properties of hybrid graphene/h-BN heterostructures are investigated using atomistic simulations. While the thermal conductivity is observed to be significantly limited perpendicular to the graphene/h-BN interface, it is tunable via a composition parallel to the interface. In particular we show that the thermal transport parallel to the interface can be understood by viewing the hybrid system as a series of individual embedded graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) constrained by neighboring h-BN. A mechanistic model is proposed to relate the thermal conductivities of the embedded and free-standing GNRs through a linear function of the composition. The model predictions are demonstrated to be in good agreement with the simulation results.