Unusually High and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity in Amorphous Silicon Nanostructures

Amorphous Si (a-Si) nanostructures are ubiquitous in numerous electronic and optoelectronic devices. Amorphous materials are considered to possess the lower limit to the thermal conductivity (κ), which is ∼1 W·m–1 K–1 for a-Si. However, recent work suggested that κ of micrometer-thick a-Si films can be greater than 3 W·m–1 K–1, which is contributed to by propagating vibrational modes, referred to as “propagons”. However, precise determination of κ in a-Si has been elusive. Here, we used structures of a-Si nanotubes and suspended a-Si films that enabled precise in-plane thermal conductivity (κ∥) measurement within a wide thickness range of 5 nm to 1.7 μm. We showed unexpectedly high κ∥ in a-Si nanostructures, reaching ∼3.0 and 5.3 W·m–1 K–1 at ∼100 nm and 1.7 μm, respectively. Furthermore, the measured κ∥ is significantly higher than the cross-plane κ on the same films. This unusually high and anisotropic thermal conductivity in the amorphous Si nanostructure manifests the surprisingly broad propagon mean ...