Universal Behavior of Highly Confined Heat Flow in Semiconductor Nanosystems: From Nanomeshes to Metalattices.

Nanostructuring on length scales corresponding to phonon mean free paths provides control over heat flow in semiconductors and makes it possible to engineer their thermal properties. However, the influence of boundaries limits the validity of bulk models, while first-principles calculations are too computationally expensive to model real devices. Here we use extreme ultraviolet beams to study phonon transport dynamics in a 3D nanostructured silicon metalattice with deep nanoscale feature size and observe dramatically reduced thermal conductivity relative to bulk. To explain this behavior, we develop a predictive theory wherein thermal conduction separates into a geometric permeability component and an intrinsic viscous contribution, arising from a new and universal effect of nanoscale confinement on phonon flow. Using experiments and atomistic simulations, we show that our theory applies to a general set of highly confined silicon nanosystems, from metalattices, nanomeshes, porous nanowires, to nanowire networks, of great interest for next-generation energy-efficient devices.

Structural and Elastic Properties of Empty-Pore Metalattices Extracted via Nondestructive Coherent Extreme UV Scatterometry and Electron Tomography.

Semiconductor metalattices consisting of a linked network of three-dimensional nanostructures with periodicities on a length scale <100 nm can enable tailored functional properties due to their complex nanostructuring. For example, by controlling both the porosity and pore size, thermal transport in these phononic metalattices can be tuned, making them promising candidates for efficient thermoelectrics or thermal rectifiers. Thus, the ability to characterize the porosity, and other physical properties, of metalattices is critical but challenging, due to their nanoscale structure and thickness. To date, only metalattices with high porosities, close to the close-packing fraction of hard spheres, have been studied experimentally. Here, we characterize the porosity, thickness, and elastic properties of a low-porosity, empty-pore silicon metalattice film (∼500 nm thickness) with periodic spherical pores (∼tens of nanometers), for the first time. We use laser-driven nanoscale surface acoustic waves probed by extreme ultraviolet scatterometry to nondestructively measure the acoustic dispersion in these thin silicon metalattice layers. By comparing the data to finite element models of the metalattice sample, we can extract Young's modulus and porosity. Moreover, by controlling the acoustic wave penetration depth, we can also determine the metalattice layer thickness and verify the substrate properties. Additionally, we utilize electron tomography images of the metalattice to verify the geometry and validate the porosity extracted from scatterometry. These advanced characterization techniques are critical for informed and iterative fabrication of energy-efficient devices based on nanostructured metamaterials.

A new fanged frog in the Limnonectes kuhlii complex (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from northeastern Cambodia.

The Limnonectes kuhlii complex is a group of morphologically similar species of fanged frogs distributed across much of mainland and insular Southeast Asia. Many new species in this complex have been described in recent years, primarily on the basis of mitochondrial DNA divergence corroborated by differences in linear measurements and qualitative characters. Males in this species complex develop enlarged heads at sexual maturity, but the degree of head enlargement varies among mature males, even within the same population. We evaluated the utility of body length (snout-vent length minus head length) in descriptive statistics and in size-adjusting measurements for traditional morphometric analysis, as well as a landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis of male head shape, in Indochinese species of the L. kuhlii complex. The analyses supported quantitative and qualitative morphological distinction of a divergent mitochondrial lineage of the L. kuhlii complex in northeastern Cambodia, and the lineage is described as a new species. Limnonectes fastigatus sp. nov. differs from its closest relatives and from geographically proximate members of the complex by having the combination of elongated, slender odontoids; nuptial pads on the first finger; immaculate belly; significantly different body length-adjusted measurements in both sexes; and a significantly different male head shape. The new species is the only member of the L. kuhlii complex known from Cambodia.