Thermal transport in phononic crystals and the observation of coherent phonon scattering at room temperature.

Large reductions in the thermal conductivity of thin silicon membranes have been demonstrated in various porous structures. However, the role of coherent boundary scattering in such structures has become a matter of some debate. Here we report on the first experimental observation of coherent phonon boundary scattering at room temperature in 2D phononic crystals formed by the introduction of air holes in a silicon matrix with minimum feature sizes >100 nm. To delaminate incoherent from coherent boundary scattering, phononic crystals with a fixed minimum feature size, differing only in unit cell geometry, were fabricated. A suspended island technique was used to measure the thermal conductivity. We introduce a hybrid thermal conductivity model that accounts for partially coherent and partially incoherent phonon boundary scattering. We observe excellent agreement between this model and experimental data, and the results suggest that significant room temperature coherent phonon boundary scattering occurs.

Microfabricated suspended island platform for the measurement of in-plane thermal conductivity of thin films and nanostructured materials with consideration of contact resistance.

A technique based on suspended islands is described to measure the in-plane thermal conductivity of thin films and nano-structured materials, and is also employed for measurements of several samples with a single measurement platform. Using systematic steps for measurements, the characterization of the thermal resistances of a sample and its contacts are studied. The calibration of the contacts in this method is independent of the geometry, size, materials, and uniformity of contacts. To verify the technique, two different Si samples with different thicknesses and two samples of the same SiN(x) wafer are characterized on a single device. One of the Si samples is also characterized by another technique, which verifies the current results. Characterization of the two SiN(x) samples taken from the same wafer showed less than 1% difference in the measured thermal conductivities, indicating the precision of the method. Additionally, one of the SiN(x) samples is characterized and then demounted, remounted, and characterized for a second time. The comparison showed the change in the thermal resistance of the contact in multiple measurements could be as small as 0.2 K/µW, if a similar sample is used.

Group-theory approach to tailored electromagnetic properties of metamaterials: an inverse-problem solution.

The problem of designing electromagnetic metamaterials is complicated by the pseudo-infinite parameter space governing such materials. We present a general solution based on group theory for the design and optimization of the electromagnetic properties of metamaterials. Using this framework, the fundamental properties of a metamaterial design, such as anisotropy or magnetic or electrical resonances, can be elucidated based on the symmetry class into which the unit cell falls. This provides a methodology for the inverse problem of design of the electromagnetic properties of a metamaterial. We also present simulations of a zia metamaterial that provides greater design flexibility for tuning the resonant properties of the device than a structure based on a simple split-ring resonator. The power of this zia element is demonstrated by creating bianisotropic, chiral, and biaxial designs using the inverse group-theory procedure outlined in this paper.

Absorbing boundary conditions for low group velocity electromagnetic waves in photonic crystals.

We present an efficient method for the absorption of slow group velocity electromagnetic waves in photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs). We show that adiabatically matching the low group velocity waves to high group velocity waves of the PCW and extending the PCW structure into the perfectly matched layer (PML) region results in a 15 dB reduction of spurious reflections from the PML. We also discuss the applicability of this method to structures other than PCWs.

Reduction in the thermal conductivity of single crystalline silicon by phononic crystal patterning.

Phononic crystals (PnCs) are the acoustic wave equivalent of photonic crystals, where a periodic array of scattering inclusions located in a homogeneous host material causes certain frequencies to be completely reflected by the structure. In conjunction with creating a phononic band gap, anomalous dispersion accompanied by a large reduction in phonon group velocities can lead to a massive reduction in silicon thermal conductivity. We measured the cross plane thermal conductivity of a series of single crystalline silicon PnCs using time domain thermoreflectance. The measured values are over an order of magnitude lower than those obtained for bulk Si (from 148 W m(-1) K(-1) to as low as 6.8 W m(-1) K(-1)). The measured thermal conductivity is much smaller than that predicted by only accounting for boundary scattering at the interfaces of the PnC lattice, indicating that coherent phononic effects are causing an additional reduction to the cross plane thermal conductivity.