Strain-controlled thermal conductivity in ferroic twinned films

• Main Authors: Li, Suzhi (Author), Ding, Xiangdong (Author), Ren, Jie (Contributor), Moya, Xavier (Author), Li, Ju (Contributor), Sun, Jun (Author), Salje, Ekhard K. H. (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2014-11-03T17:30:44Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Large reversible changes of thermal conductivity are induced by mechanical stress, and the corresponding device is a key element for phononics applications. We show that the thermal conductivity κ of ferroic twinned thin films can be reversibly controlled by strain. Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations reveal that thermal conductivity decreases linearly with the number of twin boundaries perpendicular to the direction of heat flow. Our demonstration of large and reversible changes in thermal conductivity driven by strain may inspire the design of controllable thermal switches for thermal logic gates and all-solid-state cooling devices.