Super-Ballistic Width Dependence of Thermal Conductivity in Graphite Nanoribbons and Microribbons

The super-ballistic temperature dependence of thermal conductivity, facilitated by collective phonons, has been widely studied. It has been claimed to be unambiguous evidence for hydrodynamic phonon transport in solids. Alternatively, hydrodynamic thermal conduction is predicted to be as strongly dependent on the width of the structure as is fluid flow, while its direct demonstration remains an unexplored challenge. In this work, we experimentally measured thermal conductivity in several graphite ribbon structures with different widths, from 300 nm to 1.2 & mu;m, and studied its width dependence in a wide temperature range of 10-300 K. We observed enhanced width dependence of the thermal conductivity in the hydrodynamic window of 75 K compared to that in the ballistic limit, which provides indispensable evidence for phonon hydrodynamic transport from the perspective of peculiar width dependence. This will help to find the missing piece to complete the puzzle of phonon hydrodynamics, and guide future attempts at efficient heat dissipation in advanced electronic devices.

Automated summary

The temperature dependence of thermal conductivity in solids has been widely studied and considered as evidence for hydrodynamic phonon transport. However, the direct demonstration of hydrodynamic thermal conduction and its dependence on structure width remains unexplored. In this work, we experimentally measured thermal conductivity in graphite ribbon structures with different widths and observed enhanced width dependence in the hydrodynamic window. These findings provide important evidence for phonon hydrodynamic transport and can guide future efforts in heat dissipation for electronic devices.