Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 17, 2026

Studying the Effects of Temperature on the Nucleation and Growth of Nanoparticles by Liquid-Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy
Published on: February 17, 2021
Fractal Lévy Heat Transport in Nanoparticle Embedded Semiconductor Alloys
Amr M S Mohammed1, Yee Rui Koh1, Bjorn Vermeersch1
1†Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
Abstract:
Materials with embedded nanoparticles are of considerable interest for thermoelectric applications. Here, we experimentally characterize the effect of nanoparticles on the recently discovered Lévy phonon transport in semiconductor alloys. The fractal space dimension α ≈ 1.55 of quasiballistic (superdiffusive) heat conduction in (ErAs)x:InGaAlAs is virtually independent of the Er content 0.001 < x < 0.1 but instead controlled by alloy scattering of the host matrix. The increased nanoparticle concentration does reduce the diffusive recovery length by an order of magnitude. The bulk conductivity drops by 3-fold, in close agreement with a Callaway model. Our results may provide helpful hints toward engineering superdiffusive heat transport similar to what has been achieved with light in Lévy glasses.
Related Concept Videos
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I
Mechanism of heat transfer
Theory of Metallic Conduction
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...
Heat Flow and Specific Heat

