Dimensional crossover of thermal conductance in nanowires

Dimensional dependence of thermal conductance at low temperatures in nanowires is studied using the nonequilibrium Green's function method. The authors' calculation shows a smooth dimensional crossover of thermal conductance in nanowire from one-dimensional to three-dimensional behavior with the increase of diameters. The results are consistent with the experimental findings that the temperature dependence of thermal conductance at low temperature for diameters from tens to hundreds of nanometers will be close to the Debye law. The calculation also suggests that universal thermal conductance is only observable in nanowires with small diameters. They also find that the interfacial thermal conductance across Si and Ge nanowires is much lower than the corresponding value in bulk materials. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.