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Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer graphene

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 555–558 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Graphene1, in addition to its unique electronic2,3 and optical properties4, reveals unusually high thermal conductivity5,6. The fact that the thermal conductivity of large enough graphene sheets should be higher than that of basal planes of bulk graphite was predicted theoretically by Klemens7. However, the exact mechanisms behind the drastic alteration of a material’s intrinsic ability to conduct heat as its dimensionality changes from two to three dimensions remain elusive. The recent availability of high-quality few-layer graphene (FLG) materials allowed us to study dimensional crossover experimentally. Here we show that the room-temperature thermal conductivity changes from ∼2,800 to ∼1,300 W m−1 K−1 as the number of atomic planes in FLG increases from 2 to 4. We explained the observed evolution from two dimensions to bulk by the cross-plane coupling of the low-energy phonons and changes in the phonon Umklapp scattering. The obtained results shed light on heat conduction in low-dimensional materials and may open up FLG applications in thermal management of nanoelectronics.

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Figure 1: Samples and measurement procedure.
Figure 2: Experimental data.
Figure 3: Theoretical interpretation.

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Acknowledgements

A.A.B. acknowledges support from ONR through award N00014-10-1-0224, ARL/AFOSR through award FA9550-08-1-0100 and SRC - DARPA through the FCRP Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA) and the Interconnect Focus Center (IFC). C.N.L. and W.B. acknowledge support from ONR/DMEA H94003-09-2-0901, NSF/CBET 0854554 and GRC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Program, Nano-Device Laboratory, University of California–Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA

    Suchismita Ghosh, Denis L. Nika, Samia Subrina, Evghenii P. Pokatilov & Alexander A. Balandin

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California–Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA

    Wenzhong Bao & Chun Ning Lau

  3. Department of Theoretical Physics, State University of Moldova, Chisinau MD-2009, Republic of Moldova

    Denis L. Nika & Evghenii P. Pokatilov

Authors
  1. Suchismita Ghosh
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  2. Wenzhong Bao
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  3. Denis L. Nika
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  4. Samia Subrina
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  5. Evghenii P. Pokatilov
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  6. Chun Ning Lau
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  7. Alexander A. Balandin
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Contributions

A.A.B. conceived the experiment, led the data analysis, proposed theoretical interpretation and wrote the manuscript; S.G. carried out Raman measurements; S.S. carried out finite-element modelling for thermal data extraction; W.B. prepared most of the samples; C.N.L. supervised the sample fabrication; D.L.N. and E.P.P. assisted with theory development and carried out computer simulations of thermal conductivity.

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Correspondence to Alexander A. Balandin.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ghosh, S., Bao, W., Nika, D. et al. Dimensional crossover of thermal transport in few-layer graphene. Nature Mater 9, 555–558 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2753

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