Heat and Electron Transport in Multi-Component Nanostructures with Imperfect Interfaces

Heat management in modern electronic devices is becoming increasingly important with computing demands posed by data-intensive applications. When the device size reaches the nanoscale, scattering at interfaces dictate the device functionality. Additionally, dimensional reduction significantly modifies the properties of carriers in the nanostructure. A complete treatment of transport in a multi-interface system requires solving the complex interplay between dimensional confinement and interface scattering. In this work, we investigate phonon and electron transport in layered Si/Ge superlattices with imperfect interfaces employing classical molecular dynamics and density functional theory in combination with semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory, respectively. We determine the extent of disruption of the "superlattice" phonons by investigating the MFP distribution combined with the thermal conductances of the confined layers. We discuss strategies to tune electron transport in imperfect interfaces with strain and/or containing interstitials. Our work illustrates the carrier transport size effects in multilayered systems and highlights the effect of local interfacial structures on global transport in multi-component systems.