Phonon Transport and Scattering in Rough and Porous Silicon Nanowires

Silicon nanostructures and methods to grow them and influence their structure and morphology has recently been demonstrated to offering a useful strategy to control thermal conductivity and light-matter interactions. The transport and scattering of phonons in Si has demonstrated effective thermoelectric performance largely due to effects caused by surface roughening and nanoscale irregularities in the crystal structure that contribute to diffuse boundary scattering mechanisms. When confinement effects are introduced in crystalline materials the electron and phonon transport can be significantly due to three discrete effects: increased boundary scattering, changes in phonon dispersion, and quantization of phonon transport. Using both room-temperature and in-situ thermal Raman scattering spectroscopy the transport of phonons within Si and its nanostructures can be probed quickly and with little sample preparation. Both ambient and high temperature characteristics of the Si are examined and phonon transport changes between the b-Si and the SiNWs can be linked to scattering effects due to the different morphologies possible using metal-assisted chemical etching to form NWs with tunable porosity and surface roughness. This work demonstrates that by increasing the number of available scattering sites in nanostructured Si within the structure (not just boundary scattering at rough surfaces), the role of four phonon processes on the phonon transport within Si can be optimised. This study is important for providing information on the phonon transport within Si and its nanostructures allowing morphologies that affect phonon transport to be exploited for engineering the thermoelectric properties of future Si devices.

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