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Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
High Surface Phonon-Polariton in-Plane Thermal Conductance along Coupled Films
Saeko Tachikawa1, Jose Ordonez-Miranda2, Yunhui Wu1
1Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
Abstract:
Surface phonon-polaritons (SPhPs) are evanescent electromagnetic waves that can propagate distances orders of magnitude longer than the typical mean free paths of phonons and electrons. Therefore, they are expected to be powerful heat carriers capable of significantly enhancing the in-plane thermal conductance of polar nanostructures. In this work, we show that a SiO 2 /Si (10 μ m thick)/SiO 2 layered structure efficiently enhances the SPhP heat transport, such that its in-plane thermal conductance is ten times higher than the corresponding one of a single SiO 2 film, due to the coupling of SPhPs propagating along both of its polar SiO 2 nanolayers. The obtained results thus show that the proposed three-layer structure can outperform the in-plane thermal performance of a single suspended film while improving significantly its mechanical stability.
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