Abstract
The description of phonon heat conduction has typically been based on Fourier diffusion theory. However, over the past three decades, a host of interesting phonon transport phenomena beyond the Fourier diffusion picture have drawn much attention. Although most of the studies focused on classical size effects that lead to reduced thermal conductivity, other phenomena have been observed, often at the microscale and nanoscale, that are either completely novel or appear only at elevated temperatures. Examples are the prediction and observation of phonon second sound at high temperatures, quantized heat conduction and Anderson localization. These developments reveal rich phonon heat conduction phenomena analogous to those of electrical conduction. This Review discusses different non-Fourier heat conduction regimes (including the Casimir–Knudsen classical size effect regime), phonon hydrodynamics, the coherent phonon transport regimes (including localization and quantization of heat conduction) and the possibility of divergent heat conduction in low dimensions.
Key points
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The Casimir–Knudsen classical size effects occur not only when phonons are dominantly scattered at boundaries, but also when the size of the heat source is comparable to or smaller than the phonon mean free path.
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Phonon hydrodynamic transport has been observed experimentally at temperatures over 100 K in graphite via second sound measurements and predicted to exist even at room temperature in some two-dimensional materials.
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A coherent heat conduction effect has been observed in superlattices because mid-to-high frequency phonons are strongly scattered at individual interfaces, making the relative contribution of low-frequency coherent phonons to heat conduction dominant.
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Impacts of phonon Anderson localization on heat conduction have been observed in superlattices with nanodots embedded at interfaces around 30–50 K.
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Quantized phonon heat conduction has been observed in the sub-Kelvin range.
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Theories have predicted that the thermal conductivity of one- and two-dimensional materials can be divergent with length, although such predictions await experimental demonstration.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks many former and current group members who contributed to his understanding of the materials discussed in this Review, especially X. Qian for his help with some of the figures. The author acknowledges past funding from the NSF, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), as well as current funding by the ONR under Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant N00014-16-1-2436 (for high thermal conductivity materials), and the US DOE–Basic Energy Sciences (award no. DE-FG02-02ER45977 (polymers), and the NSF under award CBET 1851052 (thermal metrology).
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Chen, G. Non-Fourier phonon heat conduction at the microscale and nanoscale. Nat Rev Phys 3, 555–569 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00334-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00334-1
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