A Review of Experimental and Computational Advances in Thermal Boundary Conductance and Nanoscale Thermal Transport across Solid Interfaces

Interfacial thermal resistance is the primary impediment to heat flow in materials and devices as characteristic lengths become comparable to the mean-free paths of the energy carriers. This thermal boundary conductance across solid interfaces at the nanoscale can affect a plethora of applications. The recent experimental and computational advances that have led to significant atomistic insights into the nanoscopic thermal transport mechanisms at interfaces between various types of materials are summarized. The authors focus on discussions of works that have pushed the limits to interfacial heat transfer and drastically increased the understanding of thermal boundary conductance on the atomic and nanometer scales near solid/solid interfaces. Specifically, the role of localized interfacial modes on the energy conversion processes occurring at interfaces is emphasized in this review. The authors also focus on experiments and computational works that have challenged the traditionally used phonon gas models in interpreting the physical mechanisms driving interfacial energy transport. Finally, the authors discuss the future directions and avenues of research that can further the knowledge of heat transfer across systems with broken symmetries.